


Lost in Halloweenia!

by anjumstar



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Anime-Style, Halloween, but i still like it, from ffnet, this story is 2 years old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-08 09:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16426883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anjumstar/pseuds/anjumstar
Summary: It's Halloween! Ash and the gang are living it up trick or treating when they stumble upon a strange house with some strange artifacts. What mysteries do they hold and…wait, who are those three lurking behind them?





	1. Trick or Treat

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. I'm not dead, I just post more often on ffnet. Hence why this is only making it over here...two years later! Oops. Anyway, think of this story as though you're watching the actual PokeAni, perhaps this is the Halloween movie that we all want and deserve but have never received. Anyway, this story is inspired by a Scooby Doo movie entitled Scooby Doo! and the Goblin King, an unfinished but interesting web-comic entitled "Prague Race," and the Pokémon episode entitled Hocus Pokémon. Yup, my inspiration comes from all over. I hope this gets you in the Halloween spirit!

_Having just received his last Gym Badge from the Blackthorn Gym, Ash and his friends are hard at work as ever in preparing for the Silver Conference…_

"Oh boy, a king size candy bar!"

_Or are they?_

Ash brought the plastic-wrapped log of chocolate up to his nose and inhaled loudly, salivating even though he couldn't smell anything beyond the crisp October air burning his nostrils. After savoring the moment for all of two seconds, he ripped open the chocolate bar and bit off a mouthful, strands of caramel lacing his teeth and the candy together, looking like strands from the play spider webs decorating the houses of the neighborhood. When he licked it all away, he offered a bite to Pikachu, who was perched as a Golbat on his shoulder, wings and all.

"Ash, you're supposed to be saving your candy, not eating it all tonight," Misty stated, dropping her own piece into her orange jack-o-lantern bag hanging from the crook of her arm as she held Togepi to her chest. Togepi was thrilled by all of the sights and was content to do nothing but trill away at all of the lights and spooky decorations.

"Who says?" Ash grunted through the sticky sweetness.

"I bet your mother would," Brock said. "And please tell me that you're not still wearing your fake teeth."

After swallowing, Ash felt around his teeth with his tongue to discover that he was, indeed, still wearing the false teeth that were the finishing touch on his vampire outfit. Except now, instead of glowing a light green in the dark, it was certain they were stained brown with milk chocolate and caramel goodness. Pikachu barred his teeth to reveal much the same on his own fake incisors.

"Oops."

Misty sighed, shaking her head. "I knew he wouldn't be able to handle accessories."

"Hey, at least I was smart enough to wear a costume that I wouldn't freeze to death in!"

Misty looked down at her costume, mostly just to hide her flushing face behind her bangs. She was wearing the Goldeen outfit that she had worn ages ago in that crazy magician act. "So what? I already owned it, so I figured I might as well wear it! Besides, Brock isn't any better."

Brock had decided to dress like Bruno of the Kanto—and Johto, since that's where they were—Elite Four leaving him entirely shirtless. He was hoping that it would gain him points with the ladies. Unfortunately, most of the ladies they had seen so far were half his age. Nevertheless, he didn't want to be pulled into the argument, so he suggested, "Hey, why don't we just check out the next house?"

Misty harrumphed. "Yeah, Brock. Let's go."

Ash lingered behind for only a second. "Thinks she can boss me around like that," he grumbled. "Why shouldn't we be able to eat our candy on Halloween?"

Pikachu chattered his agreement before pointing in the direction Misty and Brock were headed.

"Oh, you're right! We gotta beat them to the next house!"

Moments after Ash ran to catch up to Misty and Brock, there was a rustling in the boxwood hedges lining the sidewalk.

Jessie popped her head out from a bush, making certain that she was holding two branches on either side of her face. She spied the twerp running off after the other two twerps with Pikachu right there on his shoulder, as usual. "Hmm, right on schedule."

"On schedule fo' what?" Meowth burst out of the next bush, some leaves taped to his whiskers. "We don't have a plan!"

"Maybe we would if it weren't Halloween!" James interjected, poking his head out of a third bush, pausing to spit out a few leaves. "But there are people everywhere! How are we supposed to pull off any kind of a heist?"

"Well…" Meowth began slyly, turning slowly to James as a smile spread across his face, "we could pull off a candy heist if we did a little less trickin' and a little more treatin'!"

"Ooh, now that's a good plan, Meowth!"

Jessie whipped her hair around and managed to smack both James and Meowth across the face, leaving them both dazed. "You numskulls! We're not out to get candy like all of these snot-nosed little kids! We're out to catch Pikachu!"

"But Jess," James whined, "think of how long it's been since we've had that much food! Much less _good tasting_ food."

There was the sound of water dripping into the bushes as James and Meowth began to drool. Jessie clenched her fist until it shook, ready to let them have it again before she heard her stomach rumble. Both boys turned to her with raised eyebrows and Jessie blushed, holding her stomach in a gloved hand.

From out of the bushes, she produced three pillowcases and announced, "Well, I guess it can't hurt to think about food every once in a while! We can always nab Pikachu once those twerps have had their fill and all we have to do is roll Pikachu off the twerp's shoulder and right into the boss's office."

With matching grins, each grabbed a bag and then made off for the closest house, so close to mountains of candy they could taste it.

* * *

 

"Wow, this house would be spooky even if it weren't Halloween."

Ash and Misty nodded along to Brock's words as they all stood at the end of the street before a huge house that seemed to creak as a strong wind blew the autumn leaves and loose candy wrappers across the lawn.

It was like something out of a storybook. It was dark purple with a thatched black roof, which was made up of all odd angles, coming to a zenith at a pointed tower standing in the middle with a single window. Jutting in front of the window were bars of sharp iron, twisted as if by a giant's strong grasp.

"Well, the porch light is on," Ash pointed out. "That must mean that they're accepting trick-or-treaters."

Ash began to make for the front deck before Brock and Misty pulled him back. Even Pikachu pulled on his hair a little.

"Hey, what's the big idea?"

"M-Maybe we should just skip it and head to the next house," Misty suggested, eyeing the spooky structure warily.

"Why would we do that? Let's just knock on the door."

Ash stepped confidently forward, ignoring a whine from the back of Pikachu's throat as the deck groaned at their combined weight. There was no doorbell, so Ash raised his fist to knock on the door when, without so much as a tap, it opened all on its own.

"Huh, look at that."

Brock and Misty had reluctantly followed Ash, but now the both of them were slowly creeping backwards. Brock cleared his throat before saying, "Okay, now we should go, Ash."

"No, wait, look at that!" Ash was pointing just inside the doorway, where there was a small table holding a huge bowl of candy and a silver candelabra. Just above the bowl was a sign that said, _take one_. "Look, they want us to go in!"

Ash pushed the door open all the way, revealing that the whole room was lit by nothing but the three-pronged candelabra, flickering as the wind from outside tickled the stale air inside the house.

Opening the door revealed a parlor, completely decked out with Halloween decorations. There was a bit of old furniture here and there, but covering every open space were pumpkins, skeletons of humans as well as various Pokémon, witch's hats, brooms, and gnarled branches with bat-like Pokémon hanging from them. But they weren't tacky items snatched from the bargain bin of a local drugstore; everything was so well-made that they looked almost real, down to the porous bones of the skeletons and peeling bark of the branches.

After Ash stepped inside, Brock and Misty followed to take their pick from the massive collection of candy. Misty gave a little shriek when she saw an enormous Ariados doll in the corner, somehow suspended from the ceiling. It was shrouded by the dark, but the enamel mandibles almost seemed to glow with poisonous saliva in the candlelight.

She put a hand up to her face, turning away from it. It wasn't real, it only looked real. So it should only bother her if she looked on it. Nevertheless, the hairs on her arms were standing up on end and, for once that night, it wasn't from the October chill.

They all turned their attention back to the most pleasant sight of the candy dish. Even though it was pretty late in the night, the bowl looked virtually untouched. Apparently most trick-or-treaters thought even candy wasn't worth trying the old, creepy house.

But boy, were they missing out! There had to be every type of candy in that bowl. Chocolate, caramels, hard candies, lollipops, butterscotch, even truffles and small baked goods—more than Ash had even thought to imagine.

"You know, I bet we can take more than one," Ash said, reaching into the tantalizing bowl. "I don't think anybody would be upset by that."

"Ash, it says to just take one."

Misty's words sounded firm, but one look over at her, with her face inches from the candy bowl, showed that she didn't much believe what she was saying. She wanted the treats nearly as much as Ash did.

Both Togepi and Pikachu, who had wiggled their way onto the table, were also looking over the lip of the candy bowl, trying to make the best choice.

"One each," Brock stated. Both Ash and Misty sighed, resigning themselves to follow the rules before Brock spoke up again, this time with a big grin. "Though that doesn't mean we can't each choose one for each of our Pokémon too!"

Ash and Misty cheered as they finally dug into the bowl, counting off candy for each of their Pokémon as Brock wedged himself into the mix as well.

"Do you think all thirty of my Tauros count?"

"Only if all of my Gym Pokémon count!"

"Those aren't yours; they're your sisters'!"

"No, they belong to the Gym! And I'm better with them anyway!"

"Are not."

"Am too!"

"Are not!"

"Am too!"

"Are—"

"Enough out of both of you!"

Brock unwrapped two pieces of caramel and stuck one into Ash's, then Misty's mouth to quiet them. He nodded at his handiwork as both of them struggled to chew.

"That's probably enough candy for the both of you."

Then Misty made a gurgling shriek through the caramel as she began looking about wildly.

"What?"

"Pobeebee ih aw!"

Brock cocked his head. "What?"

Pikachu reached and patted Brock. "Pipipi!"

Ash caught on at that point, joining in with Misty's mumbling. Brock, however, still had no reaction, so Pikachu was forced to concentrate, spiking the fur on his head and rounding his body until he looked like an egg.

"Oh, Togepi!"

Misty finally managed to chew the caramel down to a workable level and shouted, "We have to find Togepi! Anyone see where it went?"

Everyone collectively shook their heads. Then, they heard a light trill echo throughout the whole house. They cast about, uncertain of the direction the sound came from. Pikachu's ears twitched for a second, and then he took off, scampering out of the room.

"Hey, Pikachu!"

Ash ran after Pikachu, with Brock and Misty not too far behind him. There was no electric lighting to speak of in the house, but every hallway and room was lined with sconce-like lanterns, fire blazing in each of them; there was just enough light to see a few feet in any direction, but no more.

After rounding just a few corners, they stopped in their tracks, finding themselves completely lost, with no trace of Togepi or Pikachu. There wasn't so much as the light thump of a footstep. Nothing but dull creaks from the house, coming from every direction so that it seemed like the house was trying to move or maybe even say something.

"I think we should head back to the front of the house," Brock suggested. "Just wait for Pikachu and Togepi there."

"No, we have to find Togepi!" Misty was insistent, her jaw clenched and her gaze firm, but the wavers in her voice belied her strong façade.

"Pikachu will find Togepi, Misty. And we'll be easier to find if we just stay put."

Misty looked to Ash, who nodded at her. "Misty's right, Brock. I wanna find Pikachu."

Brock could only shrug. "Suit yourself. But let's retrace our steps at least to find a better path, okay?"

"Fine."

"Alright."

It only took a few steps for them to realize they had no idea where the front of the house was. They turned around a few times, poking their head past corners, into hallways, looking for any sign of familiarity.

Somehow, the whole house was designed the way the parlor had been. In every corner were pieces of antique-looking Halloween paraphernalia, most dusty with time, like they hadn't just been set out in the past few weeks for the holiday. It seemed as though it was always Halloween in this house.

Ash stepped over the black statue of a Purrloin wearing a witch's hat, trying the last exit from the room for any hint as to where they had come from.

"No luck. That hallway just has some huge ghosts that I don't remember seeing."

"So, we're lost?"

Misty looked at Ash with a perfect blend of irritation and fear while he sweat-dropped and backed away slowly, nearly tripping over the Purrloin.

"Not lost," Brock stated, trying to diffuse the situation—or rather, avoid any situation that got Misty too mad. "We just don't know where we are or how to get back to where we were."

A vein began to throb on Misty's forehead as she turned to Brock. "Well, what is that if not lo—"

"Pika! Pika!"

The sound echoed all throughout the house until the two calls became many, sounding like there were dozens of Pikachu hiding in the very woodwork of the house. It sounded like it could have come from anywhere. Ash, Brock, and Misty cast about in all directions, to little avail.

"Priii!"

That sound too began to echo, morphing until it was a twisted distortion of Togepi's cute call.

"I think it's coming from upstairs!" Ash finally declared. "Which hallway had the stairs?"

"This one!" Misty shouted, pushing in front of them and making for a set of wooden stairs, spiraling up with an iron rail, lined with cross-shaped spikes.

"Careful!" Brock put a fingertip to one of the spikes and yanked it away quickly. "These are sharp!"

"Pikachu! Where are you?"

"Togepi! Please come out here!"

Ash and Misty tumbled onto the landing at the top of the stairs and listened as more calls came from their Pokémon, bouncing off every which way, but stronger than they had been down below.

"This way!"

"You better not be getting us lost again, Ash Ketchum!"

"No, they're definitely this way!"

"Guys, wait up!"

The trio eventually stumbled into a large, cluttered room, furnished like an attic, with no candles to light the way. There were, however, windows washing the room with the moon's pallid glow.

"Pikachu?"

"Pikapi!"

Ash nearly ran into a tall suit of armor as he rounded a stack of items, opening the large room up even further. There, bathed in a deep red glow, were Pikachu and Togepi, eyeing a strange object.

"What is that?" Misty asked with a gasp.

The red glow seemed to be emanating from the object, which was resting in a basket on top of a treasure chest, just out of Pikachu and Togepi's reaches. Not for lack of trying, though, as Togepi kept stretching its arms out, trying to touch it.

"It looks like an egg," Brock observed. "Like a dragon egg, or something."

"Oh, that's so cool!"

Ash rushed forward to look at it and soon enough, the whole gang was taken in by its almost supernatural glow.

Pikachu took it upon himself to take Togepi in his arms, raising it over his head so it could get a closer look at the object. Togepi trilled in delight, leaning in to reach it.

"Don't touch it, Togepi," Misty chastised. "It's not yours."

Togepi frowned for a second, whimpering a little. Then it jumped out of Pikachu's grasp, arms outstretched as if to give the egg a hug. Togepi landed in the basket, which was lined with straw and wheat in a neat nest, and tried to hug the egg, but its stubby arms kept it at a distance.

"Oh, Togepi."

Misty reached for Togepi, but before she could grab it back into her loving arms, the egg began to glow brightly, blinding everyone for a moment as their eyes adjusted. After a few burning blinks, everyone turned back to see Togepi being sucked into the egg.

Everyone gasped in shock. Pikachu was the first to regain his wits, and he leapt up, grabbing for Togepi, only to begin being sucked into the egg too.

"Oh no, you don't!"

Ash grabbed for Pikachu, Misty grabbed for Ash, and Brock grabbed for Misty, each disappearing faster and faster as the glow became stronger, before fragmenting from a blood red into individual beams of orange and black like a Halloween sunburst.

Then, they were gone, and the room was once again dark and silent, save for the whistling of the wind outside, and the gentle groans of the old, dark house.

_On Halloween night, Ash and friends had expected lots of treats but this is one trick they hadn't expected! Where have they gone and how will they get out of this one? Stay tuned for next time!_


	2. Abra Kadabra

_Last time, Ash and co. discovered a mysterious house while trick or treating on Halloween night. But they were the ones who ended up getting tricked when they were sucked into a magical egg! The only question is: where are they now?_

"Ugh…Are you guys okay?"

"Me and Togepi are okay. Ash?"

"We're fine!"

"Pika!"

"Now, where are we?"

The gang found themselves in a space very different than the one they'd just been transported from. At least, they could only assume that they'd been transported.

Just like the creepy old house, there were many strange objects, screaming of Halloween. But that's where the similarities ended. They were in an enormous cave or sorts made entirely of smooth, gray stone and wood, like large pieces of patchwork. It was dark, the only light in the space coming from strangely illuminated plants. But that wasn't all…

"Guys, is that staircase floating?"

"I don't know; why is that jack-o-lantern changing size?"

"Is it just me or does gravity not seem to exist?"

"Then why aren't we floating away?"

"Pi pikachu."

"Priiii!"

"Okay!" Brock threw his hands up into the air and quieted everyone's chatter as they continued to look around at the strange world they'd found themselves in. "Obviously we're not in Johto anymore. Or, if we are, we're certainly not anywhere I've heard of before. Now, strange angles aside, this seems to be a hallway, so I say we just walk and see where we come out."

Ash nodded. "Good idea, Brock."

Misty only rolled her eyes. "Sure, because that worked out so well for us before."

Still, the three of them began walking forward. Or, if not forward, at the very least they were walking in a direction…possibly.

As they walked, the sights they spotted grew stranger and stranger. There were enormous trees with twisted roots above ground, even though it seemed for all the world like they were inside. Worse for Misty, it seemed as though there were all kinds of creepy crawlies living inside the strange plants. And the sounds they'd heard in the house had nothing on the eerie hoots and screeches echoing through the strange chamber.

"Guys, I don't like this," Misty said as a cold draft blew, heaving shivers through her. "Do you think we're getting closer to the exit?"

"Either that or closer to the center," Brock said, providing Misty with no comfort.

"Come on, Mist, it's Halloween! You should be up for a little bit of spookiness."

Misty cast about, holding Togepi a little tighter to her chest. "This is more than a little."

"Who goes there?"

The gang froze all at once, backing into each other with wide eyes. After a moment's silence, Brock and Misty prodded at Ash's back. "Say something!" Misty hissed.

Ash trembled a little, gulping as his throat seemed to try and escape his body via his mouth. "Uh, we do!"

"Ash!"

"I-I mean, hi! We're a little lost! Can you help us?"

The silence stretched into forever while no one, save for Togepi, took so much as a breath. Then, all at once, a being appeared before them as if from nothing. "Hello."

Everyone, save for Togepi, jumped into the air, screaming before making a break for it and heading back in the other direction. Then, before any of them knew what had happened, they froze mid-step, unable to so much as twitch an eyebrow.

"I'm here to help you."

As if by some supernatural mechanism, all of them were forced to turn around, still frozen in a strange, purple haze. They were faced with an Alakazam, who had his two spoons raised up at them. After a moment, he lowered the spoons and feeling returned to the gang's bodies. Everyone took a few heaving breaths and Pikachu shook himself like a wet dog, shooting a little bit of static through his fur to wake up his tingling muscles.

Meanwhile, the humans looked at the Alakazam in confusion.

"You're lucky I'm the one who's here to find you," he stated flatly. "The usual gatekeeper is taking Halloween off and isn't nearly as nice as I am. My name is Mantar."

"Hi, uh, Mantar. Are you using telepathy to talk to us?" Brock asked

Mantar narrowed his eyes. "No. Don't you see my mouth moving?"

"He's the nice one?" Misty whispered to Ash.

"I think we're really lucky we didn't meet the mean one," Ash whispered back. Then, he shook his head in realization and said at a normal volume, "Wait, you can talk?"

Mantar fell over. Then he looked at Ash as though he was the world's dimmest Psyduck. "Yes, I can talk!" He shook his head as he muttered to himself, "Humans."

"Um, excuse me?" Misty said brightly, putting on a cheerful smile as she looked at Mantar. "Do you think you can help us get out of here?"

"Get out of here? Yes. Get you back home? No."

Ash's eyes widened; Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder to share his sentiment. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that we're inside a portal right now between your world and my world. They only work one way. And this one happens to go from yours to mine and today I'm the gatekeeper. I can take you to my world, and from there we'll have to find a portal leading back to yours."

"Okay, sounds simple enough," Ash stated. "So let's go."

Mantar scoffed as he led the group to continue walking down the cave, reaching a sideways staircase. Everyone let out a gasp when they didn't seem to fall and their center of gravity just shifted with the landscape. Beyond were more spooky objects doing even spookier things. None were particularly scary, though, save for the plentitude of bugs. Misty kept her hands up to her face like blinders and looked at nothing past Mantar's back.

"Right. By the way, I should tell you that people won't take too kindly to your appearances. If you're found out to be human, you'll be jailed."

"Jailed!" Misty exclaimed. "For what? We didn't do anything!"

"You came here," Mantar stated. "That's enough. You're compromising our safety."

"Compromising your safety?" Brock asked in disbelief. "We're only trying to get home." He brushed away a fake bat that was hanging from a string from the ceiling or roof—it was too shrouded in dark to tell which.

"Your Pokémon are even more misfortunate than you," Mantar continued, ignoring Brock.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked warily, putting a hand on Pikachu's back. Misty also held Togepi closer to her chest.

"They'll likely be stolen."

Ash laughed. "Oh, we deal with people trying to steal our Pokémon every day."

Mantar laughed too, but with a much more menacing undertone. "You know not what you deal with."

"So what do we do?" Misty asked Mantar, worried for her Togepi's safety.

"Hide them in your capturing devices. You have those, yes?"

Misty and Ash looked at each other worriedly. "I can hide Togepi in my bag," Misty offered.

Mantar looked at how small Togepi was and nodded. "I suppose that shall do for the Fairy." He then turned to Ash.

Ash was looking at Pikachu, who was frowning uncertainly. "Whaddya say, buddy? Can you do the PokéBall just this once?"

Pikachu shook his head. "Pi. Kachu."

"I'm sorry, Mantar," Ash said, accepting Pikachu's decision. "I can't do that."

Mantar sighed. "Then disguises will be necessary."

Ash looked around at everyone's costumes. "But it's Halloween! We're already in disguises." Ash barred his new fangs and flapped his cape, as did Pikachu.

"Well, lucky for you, it's Halloween for us too. But we need a _disguise_ , not a costume."

By that point, they'd walked quite some ways, but everything looked just as much like a 3D puzzle as it had before. Nevertheless, Mantar stopped and looked around before nodding to himself.

"This is a good spot."

Everyone else looked around as well, not seeing whatever it was that Mantar seemed to.

"Good spot for what?" Brock asked.

Mantar didn't respond, simply lifting his spoons as his body and everyone else's took on a holy white glow.

"Teleportation!"

And everyone disappeared with a flash and a gasp.

* * *

"Oh, please don't let this be a dream!"

"Or if it is a dream, don't make me wake up!"

"You two can wake up any time ya want; I'm gonna keep eating dis candy!"

Jessie, James, and Meowth were gobbling up all the candy in sight, barely stopping to breathe, much less chew. They had stumbled upon a stash of candy of mythical proportions in a seemingly abandoned house, that had the front door left wide open. It was as if they had been invited in to finish up all of the candy that the trick or treaters had missed.

Currently, they were on their hands and knees with the bowl in between the three of them, debris from the inedible bits strewn carelessly about.

Suddenly, a howl was heard outside. It was enough to tear a yowl from Meowth, who sprang up and landed on Jessie's head, tearing his claws through her long red hair.

"Get off of me, you mangy fur-ball! You're ruining my hair!" Jessie managed to shout—or rather, spit—through a mouthful of half-eaten candy.

Jessie all but threw Meowth to the ground when another howl came from outside, this time with a strong breeze to accompany it, blowing out the nearly-melted candles remaining on the candelabra.

Everyone shrieked, collectively gauging their priorities and grabbing the candy bowl before running further into the house, out of the dark. They paused to catch their breaths, indigestion coming up on them rapidly what with all the candies that were now somewhere between their mouths and their stomachs.

"That," James heaved, "was unnecessary."

"I just don't like tings dat howl," Meowth defended himself.

Jessie was the first one to collect herself, unfolding her doubled-over body and taking a look around the room they'd found themselves in. "Did either of you notice how strange this place is?"

James and Meowth followed Jessie's lead and looked as far as they could see in the dim candlelight.

"There's Halloween stuff everywhere," James pointed out. "Even here in the house where no one could possibly see it."

Meowth was at eye-level with the statue of a Houndoom with ruby-like gemstones for eyes. "Well, I don't like it."

"I bet some of this stuff is pretty valuable." Jessie balanced the candy bowl on her hip with one arm as she put a thoughtful finger to her chin. "Out of all of this junk something is bound to be antique, or at least well-designed."

James eyed a witch who had run into the wall, so only her back side was visible. She was atrociously dressed. "Maybe not."

"It can't hurt to look," Jessie said, walking into the next room as she tossed another piece of candy into her mouth. "The owner can't mind if one or two pieces go missing."

The trio eventually found themselves at a creaky, wooden set of stairs with a spiky, wrought iron hand rail.

"Wow, look at all dis junk!"

The upstairs room had no furniture to speak of, or if it did, it was completely covered by the strange novelty objects of downstairs, but now so abundant they seemed to be forming an army.

"I don't know. This is nice." Jessie held up a large, feather fan and began fanning herself with it.

"Very glamorous," James agreed.

"Holy cow, look at dis!" Meowth had hopped over some objects and made it further into the huge room where a dull red glow stood out from the dark. "Dis hasta be valuable!"

"Ooh, I bet it is!" Jessie said, her eyes wide and glittering. "Lemme touch it!"

"No, I'm da one who found it!"

"Come here, little eggy-poo, Uncle James will take good care of you."

James reached right over Meowth and plucked up the egg, examining it for just a second before his hands began to seep into it.

"W-What's happening?"

"James?"

"Jimmy?"

Jessie lunged for James as he quickly began to get sucked into the egg, and Meowth hastily grabbed on to Jessie's hair before she, too, vanished.

"Team Rocket's being pulled away again!"

* * *

"That should do for now."

Mantar had teleported the gang straight into his own house, where he had begun taking care of their disguises. The house was essentially a small log cabin, and the entire space was about practicality. There was a small kitchen, bathroom, and a bed, and that was just about it. Very barren in comparison to the strange portal they'd just left.

The finishing touch for the disguises was to use Hypnosis on Togepi, which Mantar did before promptly returning it to Misty's bag, where it could hopefully sleep peacefully for the rest of the evening until they managed to return home.

"Aw, Pikachu's so cute!" Misty cooed as she reached to pick Pikachu up. Except that Pikachu wasn't a Pikachu anymore; he was a Pokémon called a Pumpkaboo. Mantar had cast a spell, temporarily giving Pikachu almost the face of a plush bat, stuffed into a hollow jack-o-lantern.

"Pika!" he cheered, enjoying his round new form.

"Yeah, a lot cuter than you look, Misty," Ash said as he stole Pika-boo back. " _You_ look like Frankenstein."

Ash didn't even see the mallet coming. He was on the ground with birds swirling around his head, which was now forming a healthy lump.

"For your information, Ash Ketchum, I am not green, and you don't look any better!"

"He actually looks a little worse with that lump on his head," Brock whispered to Mantar, who nodded in response.

Ash had a point, though. Mantar had painted stitches onto Ash, Misty, and Brock's skin so that they would look like they were wearing human costumes. Small darts sketched on the angles of their body, like their necks and their shoulders, where the seams in a costume would be. Apparently dressing up as a human was a very popular look on Halloween. They had also since returned to their normal clothes, because there was no use wearing a costume over a "costume."

"So, explain this to me, Mantar," Brock started. "Why is it okay for Pikachu to be a Pumpkaboo, but not a Pikachu?"

"Obviously there are Pokémon here." Mantar gestured to himself as he put the paints and makeup back into his small closet. "But only certain Pokémon. We don't have as abundant a variety as do you. We have a plentitude of Dark, Ghost, Poison, and Bug Types."

"B-Bug Types?" Misty squeaked.

"Yes. There are some that are rarer, like Psychic or Fairy and other exceptions. But the sight of something like an Electric Type would clue people into the fact that the portal has been breached."

"Why wouldn't people just assume that Pikachu is another exception?" Ash asked, after peeling himself from up off the floor.

Mantar sighed. "Because Pokémon from the outside that don't suit our Typings lose that Element after a while here."

"What?" Ash grabbed Pika-boo and held him protectively, both of their expressions creased with concern.

"Slowly but surely, your Pikachu will lose his Electric Typing and will likely start to take on the qualities of another Type. Usually Dark. It's probably already happening," Mantar informed them regretfully. "His appearance might even change, becoming black to suit the creatures of this land."

"The creatures of this land? But you still look like any Alakazam I've ever seen," Ash stated.

Mantar shook his head. "Maybe you'll just have to see for yourselves."

He pushed the front door open and immediately the loud ruckus from outside came flooding in. The world was dark with nighttime, but there were flashing lights everywhere, mostly white and orange. Music was blaring songs that made you want to dance and the smell of food was pervasive.

In short: the whole world was a party.

Alakazam began leading them straight into the fray and Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pika-boo just looked around in awe. It was a party, alright, but everything absolutely screamed Halloween. None, more so than the people—or creatures, rather—in attendance.

There, behaving just like humans, were Golbat, Murkrow, Gengar, Gothita, Dustox, Sigilyph, and so many more. Just like Mantar, they could converse, and were doing so over snacks and punch, laughing raucously with good humor. Misty let out a shriek at the sight of a Galvantula breaking it down on with his many legs the dance floor, but Ash quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and pushed her gaze away. The other direction, they saw a black Glameow walking along, dressed in a tuxedo.

"Oh, so that's what you meant," Ash muttered.

Stranger than the Pokémon, though, were the other attendees, far from anything the gang had ever witnessed in their world.

There were goblins, trolls, witches, zombies, skeletons—things that should have just been costumes, come to life.

Brock's eyes popped out of his head when he spotted a girl with long, black hair that flowed down to her waist and sleepy brown eyes. "Wow, look at her!"

Mantar murmured, "Just you wait."

Not a moment later, the girl turned around and the other half of her face was that of a zombie. "Gah!" Brock shouted as he stumbled back.

Mantar smirked.

"Welcome to Halloweenia."

_After having been teleported from their world, Ash and friends find themselves in the strange land of Halloweenia with little clue as to how to get back home! Donning their new disguises, they go out in search of a mysterious portal. Will they find one? Tune in next time for more adventures in Halloweenia!_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll notice some inconsistencies with the objects that our characters have with them. Bags, clothes, candy dishes, etc. This is because this happens in the cartoon and, hey, it makes my life easier, so I'm putting it into use!


	3. The Last Midnight

_We left off last time with Ash and the gang in a strange land named Halloweenia, accompanied by their mostly helpful aid, Mantar. And Team Rocket was…Oh yes, this is a familiar sight._

Screams echoed as Team Rocket seemed to tumble through space, unable to see where they were going. Before too long, though, James landed face-first on the ground with his limbs all akimbo. Without so much as a second to right himself, Jessie landed squarely on his back, and Meowth straight on top of her.

"Ugh," James groaned into the floor, "why do I always have to be the fall guy?"

"It was the chivalrous thing to do, James; it puts your childhood to good use," Jessie grunted as she heaved Meowth off of her.

After Meowth finished seeing stars, he looked around in wonderment. "Whoa, where are we?"

They were in a cavernous room, or possibly a hallway, with strange plants of various sizes and the same kinds of Halloween relics as had been in the strange house, some floating in midair, some seeming to be almost alive.

Spotting a strange Ekans figure spiraling around a tree jutting out sideways from the stony wall, Jessie moved to get a closer look. But before she could get too close, the whole room started shaking beneath her feet.

"Oh no, what now?" James whimpered as he covered his head for safety.

Suddenly, the floor beneath them opened up; the ground simply vanished as it was replaced with a black pit. Jessie, James, and Meowth were suspended in the air for a moment of panic as they looked at each other before they shot their arms up and yet again began to scream.

"Team Rocket's falling down _again_ , again!"

* * *

Sounds of Halloweenia's great party were reverberating throughout the land to the point that it almost seemed like the moss on the trees was bumping up and down to the beat. The music combined with the chatter and general merriment created a pervasive din and a quite happy atmosphere. Everywhere except for around Mantar and our friends.

Ash observed a Girafarig whose black half had almost entirely taken over its yellow half, leaving nothing but yellow dots up its neck to hint at its prior color.

"So that's what's gonna happen to Pikachu?" Ash asked cooly, stroking Pika-boo's now luscious brown fur.

"It's likely to some degree, yes," Mantar answered. "But fear not, once you return to your world the effects should reverse just as they came on."

"You mean it's not permanent?"

"No, it's not."

"Oh, thank goodness!"

Ash took Pika-boo in his arms and cheered as Pika-boo quietly cooed, knowing that his still-Pikachu voice would be the only thing to give him away. Misty and Brock likewise smiled, looking at Pika-boo with abundant relief.

"It's a shame there aren't any Water Pokémon around," Misty observed. "I'd like to see what changes they'd go through."

"You'd just like to see any Water Pokémon," Ash joshed. He turned to Mantar. "Water Pokémon are her favorites."

As he spoke, Ash began reaching for a piece of carnival food that he and Pikachu had been eyeing. It was shaped like a Hoothoot, which would have been fun enough, but more than that, it was doughy and it smelled salty and fatty and divine. With a flash of his eyes, Mantar froze Ash and Pikachu, then turned them around so they couldn't even _look_ at the food anymore. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You have no idea what effect objects from this world can have on you."

Ash whimpered a little bit. "So we don't get to eat the whole time that we're here?"

"I wouldn't try i—"

"Wait, I still have my Halloween candy!"

Ash tore out his bag of tasty treats and began digging into it, only pausing to stop to give Pika-boo a piece. Pika-boo struggled to work out eating with his new fangs and his teeny mouth, but neither he nor Ash seemed to have too much trouble with shoveling away their snacks.

With a roll of his eyes, Mantar turned back to Misty. "I'm sure you could find a Seismitoad around here eventually if you keep your eyes peeled."

Misty's face faltered. "A Seismitoad. Oh, goodie."

"What's that?" Ash mumbled to Brock, his words hardly coherent through all the chocolate, nuts, and caramel.

"Let's just say it's not pretty," Brock whispered back. "Like, worse than a Tentacruel not pretty."

Misty suddenly popped up and pulled Brock by the ear. She scowled at him. "I heard that."

"Ow, not the ear! I didn't even do anything!"

"Let's move along, children," Mantar suggested.

Eager to get away from Misty's cruel fingers, Brock hopped at the opportunity to follow Mantar, and Ash and Misty were quick to follow. Mantar explained things as he led the group further into the fray.

"Halloween is the biggest celebration of the year here, because it's the day that our world was created. So, just like you, every year we dress up and have a festival in commemoration."

Sure enough, everyone seemed to be dressed in outlandish costumes imitating various people, Pokémon, and other creatures, but they hardly seemed necessary. There was a man, entirely red with horns emerging from his face, dressed up like a Bisharp, a Bisharp dressed like a zombie, and that zombie girl from before was dressed in an all red evening gown like a lounge singer from back in their world.

"Mantar, can I ask you something?" Misty started.

"Of course."

"Why aren't you wearing a costume, then?"

Mantar frowned, his moustache twitching a little. "The gate between your world and our world must be guarded at all times. But nobody ever wants to work it on Halloween. So I volunteered for it. There was no party for me, so I didn't bother dressing up."

"Well, that's no problem!" Ash grinned. "You can just enjoy the party now!"

Suddenly, Ash was wearing an frilly orange suit and bowler hat that looked like a pumpkin as he jumped into the midst of the party with Pika-boo. They danced away up against a Honchcrow dressed as a gangster, who was doing a pro body wave.

Everyone else sweat-dropped as they looked on, stealthily scooting away.

"We'll just pretend we don't k know them," Brock whispered.

Misty nodded, looking off to the side and whistling nonchalantly.

"I appreciate the offer," Mantar called out to Ash after letting out a nervous cough, "but I'm afraid I can't do that."

Suddenly, Ash and Pikachu were back, breathing heavily from their mediocre dancing skills.

"Because it is my current duty as gatekeeper to get you all home safely. After that, I must immediately return to the gate; it's bad enough as it is that I'm not there right now as I'm helping you."

"That doesn't matter," Ash stated firmly. "You said that Pikachu will be able to go back to normal when we get back to Johto, so there's no rush."

"I'm afraid that it's not that simple. You have to leave by midnight, or else you won't be able to return."

Ash started. "Y-You mean we'll be stuck here forever?"

"Yes. And when I say forever, I mean it truly, because people here don't die."

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu all looked at each other with wide eyes, gulping nervously, with nothing else to say, but:

"Uh-oh."

* * *

"Run for your life!"

"I am, Jessie! I am!"

"Well, I'm running for all nine of my lives, 'cause I was nevah meant to run dis fast!"

Jessie and Meowth had their eyes squeezed shut as they sprinted through the night. Only James dared a look back at their fiery pursuer. There behind them, but still far too close, was a full-grown Rapidash, flames ablaze. However, unlike an ordinary Rapidash, with a creamy, white coat, this one was that of a dark charcoal, blending in with the night so that the licking flames burned your eyes against all the dark.

That wasn't the worst part, though. James let out a girly scream as he got another good look at the man riding the dark Rapidash.

A headless horseman.

James picked up the pace, as did Jessie and Meowth. The countryside flew by as the horseman continued to gain on them until he was nigh on their heels. With a flying leap, the Rapidash cleared their heads, landing on their other side and causing the trio to come to a screeching halt. Inches away from the horseman, Jessie, James, and Meowth held onto each other, barely holding back their whimpers.

Then, before they could even give a cry, the horseman cracked his whip of bones and the Rapidash spun around, kicking Team Rocket into the night with its mighty hind-haunches.

Still holding onto each other as they flew through the air, screeches being ripped from their bodies, they arched over the countryside, over the neighborhoods, and over the buzzing city until they crashed straight into the tallest building around.

Fortunately, the window was nothing but an empty rectangle in the gothic stone frame of what truly amounted to a castle. So, with limited crashing, Team Rocket tumbled onto a stone floor, a tangle of limbs and groans.

"Ugh, I feel like we're being abused more this episode than usual," James whined as he stood up, dusting himself off.

"New author," Meowth commented, touching his charm to make sure that it hadn't been broken in the crash landing.

"Both of you be quiet!" Jessie snapped. "What's that sound?"

"It sounds as though it's coming from downstairs."

"It sounds like quite da party."

Suddenly, the trio's eyes lit up and triplet grins spread wide on their faces.

"A party!"

The stone room at the top of the tower gave way to a spiral staircase that the Team Rocket trio ran down, sounds of the party growing louder and louder with every footfall. They passed by many floors, all seemingly themed with some Halloween element or another, but the gang hardly stopped for a breath in their mission to find whichever floor was housing the party.

Eventually they stumbled upon a large banquet hall, and it was immediately obvious that it was party central. The room was decorated with rich harvest golds and metallic oranges, deeply opulent as well as all-encompassing of fall. And in the enormous room were hundreds and hundreds of people as well as Pokémon, not to mention games, food, drinks, decorations—all the trappings of a well-planned party.

"People certainly go all out with their costumes here," Jessie observed as she spotted a mummy, completely wrapped in dusty bandages, save for his nearly invisible eyes. He was even carting a sarcophagus similar to that of a Cofagrigus behind him.

"Can I interest you in a drink?"

A Gothorita was standing beside them, holding a golden tray of variously colored drinks, far above her head so that it was on level with Jessie and James. She was dressed as a bat, wearing very angular wings out of her back and pointed ears on her pigtails.

"Wait, are you a person or a Pokémon?" James asked, pointing at her face.

The Gothorita laughed. "I'm a Pokémon, silly! Now, how about that drink?"

"Oh, well, don't mind if I do," James said politely, taking an orange drink.

Gothorita went off to continue milling about the party as James began to sip on his drink.

"Well, that's strange;" Jessie observed. "I didn't think that any Pokémon could speak except for you, Meowth."

"I know," Meowth said with a pout. "I don't feel so special here."

"Oh, like you feeling special is the biggest of our worries."

"Uh, guys?"

"Well, I happen to tink dat one's opinion of themselves is one of the most important tings to concern themselves wit."

"Especially if they're a walking, talking cat Pokémon, right?"

"That's right!"

"Guys!"

Jessie and Meowth turned to look at James, only to find that he wasn't where they last saw him. Or, rather, he was, but they just had to look a little lower.

"James! You're a Raticate!"

"I know!"

"I hate rats!"

"I know!"

"Well, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know!"

James looked pathetic. He was trying to hold his head in his hands, but they could barely reach. His body was shaking and his eyes were becoming more tear-filled by the second.

"I think that drink I had was some kind of a potion!"

Jessie growled. "Well, then let's find that dumb waiter girl and give her a piece of my mind! Right, Meowth? Meowth?"

Immediately assuming the worst, Jessie's eyes darted around, looking for Meowth and whatever terrible thing could have happened to him. But lo and behold, he was still right where he had been, just thoroughly ignoring the both of them.

"Meowth! What's the big idea?" James demanded.

One look at Meowth's face, however, told the whole story. His mouth was drooling just a bit, but more dramatic than that, his eyes had turned to large, pink hearts that were beating quite fast.

"Me-yowza!"

Jessie and James-Raticate turned to follow Meowth's gaze and saw a sassy Meowth with a blue-gray coat. She was twirling a curled whisker in her paw and batting her curled eyelashes and not one second later, Meowth was out of there, thoughts of helping his friend James left in his dust.

"Well, Meowth is nothing if not reliable," Jessie grumbled.

Suddenly, someone dressed as a scarecrow came over to Jessie, black eyes wide as he zoomed in with no regard for personal space.

"Wow, your costume is so realistic!" he complimented as he poked and prodded her face. "What is it made out of?"

One good pinch to her cheeks was enough to send scarecrow boy flying away with a bright red hand print on his face.

A vein on Jessie's temple was pulsing as she clenched her fists tightly. "I do not need to stand here and be insulted! Come on, James, we'll figure out how to change you back somewhere else."

Jessie dove into the party for just a moment to grab Meowth by the tail, away from the female Dark Meowth, leaving him kicking the air in protest before she too grabbed James-Raticate and booked it out of the banquet hall.

The stone staircase continued further down, even though they must have traversed dozens of flights by that point. But Jessie figured that eventually they had to reach the ground floor and, therefore, the exit to the forsaken castle.

Predictably, the stairs did run out eventually. But they didn't leave off at an obvious front door. Rather, they opened up to a stone room, much like the one they had fallen into on the top floor, though this one was much larger.

And much spookier.

It was completely empty, save for some suits of armor lining the walls and some sconces lighting the way. The sounds of the party were completely mute from down there, even though they had been so roaring within the room that it seemed like you'd have to be miles away before the sound was drowned out. The only sound was that of their echoing footsteps upon the hard stone floor and the flickering of flames in the sconces. There were a few doors instantly visible in the large room. All were made of wood with thick, iron slabs screwed into them, and all were tall and formidable enough to be the front door.

Jessie sighed. "I guess we'll just have to start trying doors."

"Dat's gonna have to be all you, Jess. Jimmy and I ain't tall enough to reach any of the knobs."

"Fine, fine, just choose one."

"Um, how about that one?"

James pointed with his stubby paw to one that had gold plating rather than iron that shimmered in the dim light of the room. Hesitantly, Jessie reached for the gleaming knob and turned it, almost surprised when it was unlocked.

"For a castle, this place doesn't have very good security," she murmured.

Unfortunately, the door opened to reveal another room, rather than the out of doors. But this room wasn't flaunting any great opulence, like the golden door suggested. Rather, in this room, the gray stone floor gave way to packed dirt, uneven with tree roots that dotted the floor. As the trio stepped in, they saw that the roots were all coming from one tree in the center of the room that was nearly seven feet tall. Not very large for a tree, but, at second glance, this was no ordinary tree.

The tree's bark was ragged, even completely torn in places, giving way to a deep, black interior. And there were only a few tufts of leaves where the tree even seemed alive anymore. Despite the season, they were still bright green, and by far the most verdant part of the tree.

That wasn't what the Team Rocket trio was looking at, though.

Nestled atop the small tuft of green at the tip of the tree was a magnificent crown. It was a pale, golden color, though it didn't appear to be made of metal. The frame was nearly branch-like itself, with irregular golden sticks weaving together in zig-zags to form the cylindrical shape. Then, dotting the gold were colorful gemstones, glowing seemingly from the inside out. It was absolutely captivating to look at.

Jessie, James, and Meowth could barely tear themselves away from the object in order to look at each other. With the single glance, they knew they were all thinking the same thing.

They had to steal that crown.

"Now, it's just a matter of how we're gonna do it," Meowth mused with a paw to his mouth. He knew he was the brains behind the operation and that Jessie and James were going to need him to think of a plan.

The last thing he expected was Jessie coming up with a plan first. She picked him up by the scruff of his neck, and heaved him in the direction of the crown.

With only a moment to gather his wits, Meowth reached his arms out for the crown. He only had once chance to grab it, and he had to get it right.

Fortunately, Jessie was a good throw. Meowth landed flawlessly right on the top of the tree and plucked the crown up into his paws. It was heavy, but not as heavy as if it had been pure gold or any other metal. For Meowth's size, it was cumbersome more than anything; his arms had to be nearly completely outstretched just to hold on to it. Once he had a good grasp, he leapt off of the tree, and back beside Jessie and James-Raticate.

Standing on the same plane as Meowth, James ogled the crown. He reached his tiny hands to the crown, just touching it, since he couldn't really manage holding it. Then, after a moment, James-Raticate disappeared into a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, James stood in his full height, good as new.

"James, you're back!" Jessie exclaimed.

"Oh, thank goodness." James's voice was thick with relief as he patted his own body to make sure that he was, in fact, human again.

"Then why is da Pokémon the one stuck carrying da heavy crown?"

Jessie didn't need any more convincing. She snatched the beautiful crown out of Meowth's hands, marveling at it for a moment. Then, a rustling came from the tree in the center of the room and Team Rocket's hearts dropped. They couldn't risk anyone trying to take away the dear prize of this exquisite crown!

"We gotta get outta here!"

"Right!"

"Right!"

And, just like that, they absconded out of the castle, crown in hand.

* * *

Ash, Misty, and Brock were all talking over each other, all but yelling in each other's faces. Maybe they were trying to figure out a plan, maybe they were talking about the dinner plans they were missing. Who could tell over all that yelling? Pika-boo and Mantar just looked at each other, sighing as they waiting for it to come to an end.

It didn't.

Eventually, it all became too much and Pika-boo began charging up to use a Thundershock on the whole group. Eyes wide, Mantar clenched his spoons, and crossed them, letting them glow red before Pika-boo's sparks winked out.

"Disable; temporary Attack," he clarified when Pika-boo looked at him questioningly. "You can't use an Electric Attack while in this form, Pikachu. People will ask questions. As for these clowns…"

Mantar shifted towards the still-squabbling kids and simply wacked them each on the head with his spoons.

"Ugh, I guess we needed that," Brock groaned.

"You sure did."

"Pikaa."

"Thanks, Pikachu," Ash said sarcastically, rubbing the growing lump on his head. "So then what is this portal thing?"

Mantar sighed. "That's the hard part. Any object artifact from your world will do, but they're rare. Furthermore, a spell is needed to go along with them, as far as I know. It's not legal to pass through worlds, so the details are shrouded in mystery. But there are peddlers that do it, but I, personally, have never done it."

"So, basically, we don't know," Brock surmised.

"Essentially," Mantar answered regretfully.

"So," Misty started, hope trying with all its might to remain in her voice, "do you have any idea where we should start?"

The gang was left hanging as Mantar's eyes suddenly went blank. He was unmoving to the point that he looked more like a statue than a living, breathing Alakazam. Ash snapped in front of his eyes as Pika-boo waved his wing-like fluff, but to no avail.

"Nobody's home," Ash said as he put his face right up to Mantar's, squinting into his eyes.

A moment later, Mantar blinked out of it, then glared at Ash, who quickly retreated.

"What happened, Mantar?" Misty asked.

"I received a telepathic message," he explained, his voice grave. "There's been a situation."

"What kind of situation?" Brock asked as everyone looked at each other with concern.

"An object central to Halloweenia has been stolen. The king's crown."

"Do they have any idea who stole it?" Ash asked.

Mantar shook his head. "It couldn't have been a Halloweenia resident. No one in their right mind would steal the crown. So there's every reason for me to believe that someone came through the gate after you all. And, without me to guard it, they landed in Halloweenia without anyone knowing."

Misty gasped. "You think another human stole it?"

"I'm afraid so. I need to return to the gate to see if it's been compromised."

"Wait!" Ash called out. "We need your help to find a portal!"

With a heavy breath, Mantar turned to Ash. "The truth is, I don't know any more about portals in Halloweenia than I've already told you. The best advice I can give you is to get out of town. Tower guards are bound to be looking for humans all around the city."

"But then how are we supposed to find a portal?" Misty asked, worry seeping into her tone.

"I'll try and help you if I can," Mantar said. "Just remember what I said and if you can ask for help without gaining any suspicion, then do it. That's all I can tell you."

"That's all?" Ash asked.

"Oh, and this." Mantar psychically projected a grainy image of the stolen crown. "This is King Trevenant's crown, and that," he pointed into the distance at the tallest building bursting through Halloweenia's skyline, "is his tower. Don't go there for any reason, whatsoever."

"Okay," Ash agreed.

"I have to go now."

And before anyone could even say goodbye, Mantar teleported away. Then, in the distance, there was the sound of many gongs ringing out.

"What's that?" Misty asked.

"It sounds like a clock tower," Brock observed. "Ten rings."

"Uh, Brock, that means it's 10 o'clock," Misty said with a gulp.

Ash's eyes grew wide.

"We have two hours."

 _As the clock strikes ten, things are looking worse and worse for Ash and co. Will they make it out before they're stuck in Halloweenia forever? And what of Team Rocket? Is there more to that crown than meets the eye? All this and more in the next installment of_ Lost in Halloweenia!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what's terribly sad? I was posting this story October 2016 and this was my A/N for this chapter: "You know what's really spooky? The American presidential election. Make sure to educate yourself on all-not one, or both, but all-sides and vote!"
> 
> Oh, I could just weep for the innocence I had back then...So, anyway...you know what's really spooky? Freaking everything. So, Americans, vote on November 6th!


	4. All the King's Men

_Last time, Team Rocket was back at it again, stealing things that don't belong to them. But this time it was the crown of the king of Halloweenia, instead of Pikachu—oops, I'm sorry: Pika-_ boo _. Worse yet, Ash, Misty, and Brock just found out that they have only two hours to get back home. What more could possibly go wrong?_

"Tehe!"

"Whoopee!"

"Hahahahaha!"

Team Rocket was all a-giggle as they made off with the crown, which they had stuffed into Jessie's candy bag. Really, what could be better: candy and a crown, all in one convenient sack.

Life was good.

Finally, when they were out of breath, they stopped by some hedges, not too far from the castle, but far enough that they felt safe from being found out.

"Lemme get anotha good look at dat crown!"

Jessie pulled the crown out of the bag and everyone had to hold back their own gleeful giggles.

"It's more beautiful than I remember!" James gushed.

"I have to try it on!" Jessie said.

She was just about to plop it down on her head when Meowth kicked her in the face, leaving her flat on her back and the crown in his hands.

"Quit dat! Whaddya tink da boss is gonna say when he goes to put on dis crown after it had your greasy head all up on it?"

Jessie sat back up, fists clenched. "Greasy?! My hair is beautiful!"

Meowth hopped out of the way of her swinging fists, chin turned up snootily and his index finger pointed. "Dis crown has to be purr-fect for da boss. Just imagine…"

The world seemed to fade away as Meowth created a whole fantasy with his words.

"Just imagine da boss, slaving away in his office. He has so much work to do all da time; it's very taxing on him. Maybe he's even getting to da point where he feels underappreciated. He's had the same old throne for years and it just doesn't say 'big man in charge' like it used to. What does he need to remind everyone that he's da head honcho of Team Rocket? A _crown_ to show dat he's not just da boss: he's da _king_! Then, when he's feeling good and appreciated, he's gonna look at us and know that we's the ones that were responsible for it. He's gonna appreciate us! And you know da best way to appreciate someone? With a big, juicy bonus, dat's what!"

Meowth came out of the fantasy with his eyes wide and a hand over his heart.

"And then he'll remember that I'm da top cat once and for all!"

Everyone sighed with happiness, dreaming of their bonuses. They snapped out of it when something huge flew high overhead, making a lot of noise and causing the bushes to blow about. A moment later, something smaller, nearly completely shrouded by the night sky flew after it, both seeming to be in quite the rush.

"They look like they came from the castle," Jessie observed, a waver of worry coloring her tone.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" James asked, his fists pressed nervously to his mouth.

"Dats' a risk dat we can't take!" Meowth declared. "We gotta get outta here!"

"I can help with that."

Jessie, James, and Meowth all let out girlish screams as a pair of red eyes blinked through the bushes before lunging through a burst of leaves out at them.

* * *

Ash stopped abruptly in his tracks, causing Brock and Misty to run into him and a dozing Pika-boo to land sorely on the ground.

" _Pika_ ," he moaned, rubbing his rump grumpily. It was too far past his bedtime for nonsense like this.

"Ash, what are you doing?" Misty asked as he picked Pika-boo up off the ground. "We need to hurry and get out of town."

"This shop is the first one we've passed that's open," he explained. "We've gotta check to see if there's a portal in here."

Brock took stock of the lights that were on in the store, unlike all of the other properties they had passed. "Ash is right. We have to at least check it out."

"Fine, but be careful," Misty acquiesced as they pushed through the door, hearing the tinkling of a bell knocking against it. Ash coughed immediately as the pervasive scent of incense tickled his lungs.

"Ugh, I hate smelly things," he said, plugging his nose with his fingers.

"Ash, you're being rude," Misty hissed, yanking his hand away.

Ash pouted, taking a big gulp of air so that he could hold his breath.

Then the gang proceeded to glance around the strange shop. The storekeeper was a woman draped in flowing, patterned garb with long sleeves that probably touched the floor behind the counter. She looked like an ordinary eccentric woman until she turned to the side. Everyone gasped and stepped back when they noticed a hand where her ear should have been with a blinking eye right in the center of the palm. As it stared at them, they all stiffened their spines, trying their best to act normal. Ash—still holding his breath—gave a little wave and Pika-boo bounced around.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" the lady asked absently as she flipped through a magazine.

"N-No, just browsing around," Brock stuttered, waving his hands in front of his chest.

The lady gestured out to the store. "Please do."

Everyone eagerly turned their gaze out to the store, glad not to be staring at the strange lady anymore. The shop was filled with jewelry, sculpted candles, some of that horrid incense, not to mention more of the Halloween paraphernalia they were growing so used to seeing in this world. All of it was piled up, nearly spilling onto the floor in some cases. Either this store didn't get a lot of business, or it was just going for a very…eccentric vibe.

"So, Ash, any great ideas? Any of these look like portals to you?"

"Uh…"

Ash was staring at all of the knickknacks, thingamajigs, and bric-a-brac blankly. They all looked like things that could have come from their world as much as they looked like things that belonged in this world.

"If not, then we should really move on," Brock whispered.

"But if we head out of town, how can we find a portal?"

"How can we find a portal if we can't tell where any of this junk came from?"

"Excuse me, miss!" Ash raised his voice to get the shopkeeper's attention. He had to move past some of the piles to get a better view of her and accidently knocked his head on a paper lantern. Pika-boo shook his head out of embarrassment for his trainer. "Uh, where was all this stuff made?"

The shopkeeper looked up at him with bored eyes. "We have various clients in the neighborhood who make our products. Why?"

"Oh, uh, no reason!" Misty squeaked out before Ash could say something stupid. "Just like to support local businesses.

"All businesses here are local businesses," the lady deadpanned.

Misty's cheesy grin faltered. "Right…Of course!"

The storekeeper rested her chin in her hands, taking a good look at everyone. "You know, it's quite unusual for me to get costumers on Halloween. Much less ones who seem to have put so much time into their costumes…"

She was eyeing Ash and the gang suspiciously, and they shrunk back, shivering a little under her cold stare.

"Think she suspects anything?" Ash whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"If she hears you saying stuff like that, she will!" Misty hissed back.

"Well, I'm not sure how well she can hear, what with having only one ear and all," Brock added.

The shopkeeper piped up again. "And why isn't Pumpkaboo wearing a costume?"

Everyone stared at Pika-boo, who was sweat-dropping heavily from his perch on Ash's shoulder. Pika-boo looked at Ash nervously and the two nodded at each other.

"Let's get outta here!"

"Thanks for letting us look around!" Brock shouted back as the four of them booked it out of the store.

After leaving the store, the bell giving another chime before the door slammed behind them, the gang continued running, going straight out of town like Mantar had suggested.

"Ash, I'll never forgive you if we end up in jail because of you!" Misty huffed as they ran.

"No one's gonna end up in jail if we just keep running!" Brock shouted.

Suddenly, there was a sound coming from the sky, almost as if a small plane were flying overhead. But, rather than a plane, this thing was blowing this way and that, faster than Ash's eyes could follow. It was out of control. Yet, somehow, it seemed like it was headed straight for them.

"W-Watch out!" Ash shouted as they all scrambled, somehow running even faster as they sprinted, screaming away from the flying object.

The sound of air gusting and a huge object looming towards them grew until it was ringing in everyone's ears. With one flying leap, Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pika-boo hit the ground, covering their heads as the huge whatever-it-was flew over them and crash landed just in front of them.

When the danger was past, everyone lifted their faces out of the grass, to look at what exactly had nearly hit them. There before them, leaving a huge ditch of upturned grass in its wake, was what appeared to be a giant stone soldier. It was easily as tall as Ash and Misty combined, and wider than if the whole gang stood side by side.

After pushing themselves to their feet, everyone slowly crept towards it to get a closer look. Whatever it was, it wasn't moving anymore, nor was it making a sound.

"What is that?" Misty asked.

"Let's ask Dexter."

Ash fished his Pokédex out of his backpack and pointed it towards the blue and yellow thing that he only _hoped_ was a Pokémon. The Pokédex flashed to life and confirmed its belief as it started speaking: "Golurk, the Automaton Pokémon and the evolved form of Golett. Flying faster than the speed of sound, Golurk loses control when—"

Before Dexter could even finish its reading, a small, purple blur flew in front of them and then over to the Golurk. She looked like a perfect blend between a ghost and a witch, hovering in the air with a large brown flap slung over its shoulder.

"Mismagius, the Magical Pokémon and the evolved form of Misdreavus. Mismagius chants incantations, and while some cause misery, some give happiness as well."

"Come on, roll over, you big lump!"

The Mismagius beat at the Golurk, but the wispy tendrils of her dress were hardly threatening against its massive frame. Nevertheless, the Golurk rolled over with a thump that felt like an earthquake under Ash and co.'s feet.

Without missing a beat, the Mismagius dropped the brown fabric—which was almost as big as she was—on the stone soldier's chest, where a large yellow crack was open and gleaming like glow-in-the-dark paint. Abruptly, the bandage sealed to the crack, and a moment later the stone soldier blinked before sitting up and spinning its tiny head as if to regain its bearings.

"Sorry about that," the Mismagius said, finally addressing Ash. "This guy flies out of control when he loses his bandage."

"Oh, it's no problem," Ash replied with a good-natured grin. "Nobody was hurt."

"Thank goodness. It would be bad press if one of the King's personal guards hurt anyone."

The words 'kings guards' was enough for Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pika-boo to stiffen immediately, eyes frozen in shock. These were the exact people that Mantar had warned them against. The exact ones they'd been running from. Ash cracked a nervous smile as he tried to appear normal.

"Heh, yeah, that wouldn't be good for anyone. Anyway, my name's Ash, this is Misty, this is Brock, and this is…our friend…Pumpkaboo."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," the ghost-witch said with a tip of her pointy hat. "I am Blair and this is Lacedaemon."

Everyone blinked blankly at the second name.

Blair smiled. "You can call him Lassie."

Everyone looked relieved. "Nice to meet you," they said in unison.

"Pi Pikachu!"

Instantly, all eyes turned to Pika-boo, who was now covering his mouth with his furry wings, eyes wide in recognition of his mistake.

"What was that?" Blair growled, flying close to Pika-boo's face.

Pika-boo just smiled as innocently as he could, fangs bared, sweat dripping down his little face in nervousness.

"I'm sorry, I think I misheard before. Pumpkaboo, can you tell me the names of your friends here?"

Pika-boo whimpered, trying to force human speech out of his mouth, but it just wasn't happening. Under Blair's sinister yellow glare, Pika-boo had no choice but to break down and yell, "Pikapi!"

Blair's eyes narrowed. "I thought so."

Abruptly, she headed right to Pika-boo, her body disappearing right as she reached him, and reappearing on the other side with a _whoosh_. More than that, when she reappeared, Pikachu's disguise was completely gone. But Pikachu didn't exactly look like Pikachu anymore. Ash and the gang were shocked to notice that the brown stripes on Pikachu's back and its red cheeks were now black. He was turning Dark already.

"A psychic disguise," Blair stated, circling the whole group. "And judging by his fur, he's already been here a while."

She immediately began using her dress-like form to swipe at all of the fake stitches and marks along Ash, Brock, and Misty's skin, before their disguises too disappeared.

Blair reared back, her eyes wide. "Humans!"

Lassie, now standing on both legs, walked toward them, every step leaving a heavy impression in the dirt and nearly knocking everyone off their feet.

"Did you steal the crown?" Blair interrogated as Lassie loomed over them, blocking out the moon and casting them entirely in shadow.

"N-No, we didn't!" Ash cried out.

"Lassie, attack them!"

"No, please don't!" everyone yelled at once.

Lassie was just about to strike when there was a crying from inside Misty's bag.

Blair's eyes once again narrowed. "What was that?"

"N-Nothing!" Misty squeaked.

"Show me your bag immediately!"

With the threat of Lassie's all-powerful fist right in front of them, Misty had no choice but to take an awake and now crying Togepi out of her bag.

This pulled Blair's attention, and she immediately flew right up to Togepi's face, causing Togepi's sobs to turn to little hiccups. Then, before Misty knew what happened, Blair swiped Togepi and flew high over their heads.

"You can have the Fairy back when you return the crown!"

"What?" Misty screeched, running at Lassie. "We don't have the crown!"

Right as Misty reached Lassie, he lifted off into the air, this time controlled as his feet seemed to form jet-packs. The wind from them caused mud and dirt and debris to fly in the air, making Misty and everyone else cover their faces and cough as they looked away.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash coughed out.

Pikachu loosed a Thunderbolt onto Lassie, but it fizzled quickly into nothing, with no more than a blink from him. Then, when the air settled, Lassie, Blair, and Togepi were gone.

"Togepi!" Misty cried out into cupped hands. But there was no answer.

She continued yelling, until Brock said, "That won't do any good, Misty."

"It makes me feel better!" Misty snapped through the tears that were clogging her throat.

"Misty," Ash said, coming up and touching her shoulder, "we'll find Togepi. We just need a plan."

"I bet they're headed for that castle," Misty stated firmly, turning to face the large peak in the sky.

"But Mantar told us not to go there," Brock cautioned.

"I don't care!" Misty snapped. "Nothing's gonna stop me from going there and saving my Togepi!"

"But, uh, they said that they'd only give Togepi back if they got the crown," Ash mentioned.

"Okay, then we're going to have to split up," Brock said. "Misty and I will head for the tower and Ash, you and Pikachu do whatever you can to find that crown."

"But what about the portal?" Ash asked worriedly. "And midnight?"

Brock shrugged. "We're just going to have to hope that we find it along the way. If we find anything, we'll send my Crobat, and you'll send Noctowl, okay?"

Ash nodded as Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder. "Okay."

Everyone made a circle and put their fists in the center, save for Pikachu, who offered his tail.

"Let's go save Togepi!"

_Ash and co. finally have a mission, but it doesn't seem like one that will help them get back home! Hopefully they'll be able to pull off both before time runs out. And we left Team Rocket in quite a perilous position this time. Who was their mysterious intruder? Find out the answer next time!_


	5. When Black Cats Prowl and Pumpkins Gleam...

_With Togepi stolen by a ghostly duo working for the king of Halloweenia Ash and the gang don't seem to stand a ghost of a chance of getting home in the less than two hours before midnight! And how shall we find out more about Team Rocket's secret atta—_

"Aaaaaah!"

_…Why do I even bother?_

"Please don't hurt me!"

"Just avoid the face! And the hair! And the clothes!"

"Do whatevah you want to them; just don't hurt Meowth!"

Jessie, James, and Meowth were crouched, cowering in fear as sharp leaves from the browning bushes fell down upon them. They had hid their bag of treasures behind them, but that was all the cover they'd managed to provide. However, their red-eyed assailant never touched them, leaving them to peer through their fingers as they took stock of the situation.

There before them was an Umbreon, tail swishing casually as she looked down on them with disdain.

"Are you through?" she asked.

"Um, I think so," James offered.

"Wobbuffett!"

Suddenly, Wobbuffett emerged from Jessie's PokéBall, saluting the sky dutifully. Jessie shook her head scornfully at it she returned it to her PokéBall. "Now we are."

The hedges Team Rocket had chosen to hide in made a crude circle, closing them off from the castle and town, save for a small break in the branches that they had slipped through in the first place. They were close enough to the people of Halloweenia that they could hear every bit of the festival, but there was some semblance of privacy.

Save for the presence of their new intruder, of course.

The Umbreon began slinking around them in a circle, following the perimeter of the autumnal bushes. Her eyes never leaving their faces, as if daring them to try to get past her and out of their leafy cage. "My name's Kitsume. What are yours?"

"Um, I'm James, this is Jessie, and this is Me— _Ow_!"

James fell back from Jessie's attack, his head landing in the bushes. "You dimwit! Why in the world would you tell her our real names?"

"James, Jessie, and," Kitsume turned her attention strictly to Meowth, beginning to sniff around him, "Meowth, I assume. Interesting costume ya got there. Except for the socks."

Socks? Meowth looked down at his feet and saw that somehow without him noticing, his feet had turned a pale gray, almost white.

"Meowth, your tail too!" James exclaimed when he sat himself up from out of the bushes, rubbing at the red spot on his face.

Meowth turned around a few times, chasing his tail to get a good look at it before Jessie snatched it and put it right in front of his eyes so they crossed. "See?"

"Me- _yowza_!" Meowth exclaimed, terrified. "What's goin' on?"

Everyone turned to Kitsume, who just slinked over to Meowth. "Like I said; a nice costume." She licked Meowth's cheek—causing him to gain quite the hearty blush—and fluffed her tail against his fur. "Too nice."

"Are you not gonna explain what's going on with Meowth's fur?" Jessie growled.

"Let's just say I know illusions pretty well." Her eyes snapped dramatically to Jessie and James. "And that's a dead giveaway that this isn't one."

Jessie narrowed her eyes at Kitsume. "What do you mean?"

"You may have fooled everyone else so far, but I know this is no costume," Kitsume stated. "So if this really is a light-Meowth, then that means that you guys are human."

Jessie huffed, turning her nose up. "Of course we are."

Kitsume looked at Jessie in surprise. "Wow, you really don't know how much danger that puts you in. You do know that being human in this world can land you in jail, right?"

"J-Jail?!" James exclaimed.

Kitsume nodded gravely. "Yes. It's a good thing I found you. I should probably disguise Meowth here so that no one suspects you."

"Wait, so you're telling us that no one is human in this world?" Jessie summarized.

"Have you seen any humans?"

Jessie, James, and Meowth thought back to the party. Maybe all those costumes hadn't really been costumes at all…And maybe that gray-blue Meowth was what Meowth were really supposed to look like here…

Jessie and James turned to each other abruptly. "Meowth is turning into one of them!" they exclaimed.

Meowth, however, was in his own little world.

"I'd be a happy kitty if all Meowth looked like that…" Meowth said dazedly.

"Well, they do," Kitsume responded, ignoring how Meowth was now drooling. "And you're going to have to as well."

"So you'll help us out?" James asked, looking grateful. Jessie tried to take another swipe at him, but this time he managed to duck in time. "What was that for?"

But Jessie ignored him. Instead, she arched her brows at Kitsume. "What's your price?"

Kitsume grinned at Jessie. "Smart girl. What other Pokémon do you have?"

"Why do you ask?"

Jessie could have sworn that she spotted Kitsume's straight grin turn to a shifty smirk as she said, "You'll see."

* * *

Brock and Misty were following the peak of the King's castle like it was the North Star. Except, unlike the North Star, it was pitch black and foreboding against the dark blue sky, rather than light and full of hope.

"D-Do you think that we should be trying to prepare for whatever lies ahead in that tower?" Brock asked, shivers of the cold October night getting to him.

"I don't think we can prepare for anything in this wacky world," Misty stated.

As she power-walked through town, she wasn't cold, despite the far lesser amount of clothing she was wearing in comparison to Brock. Her anger was fueling her just fine.

"That is true. We don't even know what people suspect we're human or think we're just wearing really good costumes."

They hadn't been out of town long, but it still was surprising to see that the party was raging on as much as ever. All of the residents of Halloweenia seemed to be having a grand old time without any need to sleep. Especially in comparison to Misty as she stomped through town, and Brock as he struggled to catch up.

Brock's pace was slower, because he was taking the time to get a closer look at the inhabitants of Halloweenia. He was trying to see if he could spot any elements of their culture. Anything that could help them out, even if there was no surefire plan as to how to figure out how things worked in this world.

What Brock was most surprised to take note of was how the Halloweenia inhabitants interacted with each other. They seemed to move from group to group, getting along gregariously instead of sticking with friends like humans tended to do. Additionally, inter-species mingling seemed perfectly natural. The Halloween-people and Halloween-Pokémon seemed equally fond of each other. It was almost…admirable.

"Brock, you're getting distracted!" Misty called gruffly behind her. "Catch up!"

"Coming!"

As Brock caught up, Misty continued at the same volume, ranting her anger away. "All I know is that as soon as we get into that castle, we're gonna take out all of our Pokémon and challenge those Pokémon and even the king to the battle of their lives if we have to to get Togepi back!"

Or maybe rather than ranting her anger away, she was just fueling her own hate-fire.

"Uh, Misty, I'd lower my voice if I were you…"

Brock saw Misty falter for a second. "Is somebody watching us?"

"Well, no, not that I can tell…"

"Then I'll talk as loudly as I want!"

"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear—"

Both Brock and Misty screamed—Misty only slightly higher in pitch than Brock—scanning the area for whoever had sneaked up on them. There were Pokémon and strange creatures all around, but everyone was laughing it up, very much in their own world and not paying any attention to Brock or Misty. They were too busy having a good time.

"You said no one was watching us!" Misty whisper-screamed. "Who was that?"

"Down here!"

Then, right by their feet, they noticed a large jack-o-lantern, flickering with a live flame. Little did they know exactly _how_ live said flame was until it jumped right out of the hole in the top of the pumpkin. Out popped a dripping candle with a purple—nearly blue—flame.

"Litty's the name! Litty the Litwick!" Litty gave a little bow. "At your service."

"Aw, cute!" Misty said, crouching down to get a better look.

"Whoops, don't get too close to the flame there, miss. It's powerful."

Misty smiled. "Thanks for the warning. I'm sorry, but we're really in a rush, so if we could—"

"Oh, I know that. And just so you know, it won't be easy getting into that castle."

Brock and Misty exchanged a nervous glance. "Oh, we aren't trying to get into the castle," Brock said as confidently as he could muster.

"Right, right. Let me lead you there."

Litty stepped back into his jack-o-lantern and then the whole pumpkin began to hop forward. "This is my costume. Not conveniently portable but it's a crowd favorite. Love your guys's costumes, by the way."

"Oh…thanks," they both said.

"So, you're gonna just help us get into the castle?" Brock asked skeptically as he and Misty began to follow Litty. "Why?"

"You two seem to be having a wild time tonight instead of just the same old party scene. And you know this is the train Litty wants to jump on!"

"But how are you going to help us, Litty?" Misty asked.

Litty turned back and the jack-o-lantern itself winked.

"I have connections."

* * *

Ash too was making his way back into town, with Pikachu on his shoulder. He may not have known the city at all, but on Halloween, it seemed easy to tell; all he had to do was follow the lights and the sounds and soon he'd be in the thick of it. Back with the ghosts, goblins, and ghouls.

"Since the guards already found us, there can't be any harm in asking around about the portal now, right Pikachu?"

"Pi kachu."

"But can we ask about the crown?"

"Pika…"

It was obvious to Ash at this point that it was somewhat dangerous to ask about portals. But he didn't know about the crown. Mantar had left them with the impression that there might be something dangerous about asking for that too. At the very least, he made it seem like there was no chance that a Halloweenia resident could have it. Only a human.

Suddenly the image of spooky creatures of Halloweenia pointing to him, crying that he was human and that he'd stolen the crown rushed into his mind, causing him to gulp.

"Maybe we should start with the crown."

Pikachu nodded earnestly, almost desperately.

"Now, who to ask…"

Ash's eyes roved over the partygoers, but he didn't even know where to start. The strange people that existed in this world all seemed friendly enough, and he wasn't used to speaking to Pokémon, but they seemed nice too…

"Ugh, I don't know where to start!" Ash exclaimed, putting his hands to his head.

"Pika." Pikachu looked at his trainer with sorrowful eyes, patting his arm comfortingly. But he didn't have any better idea of who to ask than Ash did.

"Okay, okay, think! There's a Noctowl over there. I have a Noctowl. That seems like a good place to start, right, Pikachu?"

"Pi pikachu!"

Ash approached a Noctowl who was dressed in judge's robes from head to toe and drinking out of a mug shaped like a gavel.

"Hello!" Ash began, trying his best to look friendly.

"Oh, no, not another one," the Noctowl moaned. "I _did_ put effort into my costume, I promise I did! It took me weeks to carve this mug! See? No opposable thumbs! I had to carve it all with my beak! And I'm no woodpecker."

"No, no!" Ash said, waving his hands in front of him. "I think your costume is, uh, awesome. I just wanted to ask if you knew anything about portals."

"Portals? Why are you asking me?" The Noctowl got really close to Ash's face, one eye narrowed and the other shut, as if trying to see directly into Ash's brain. "Who have you spoken to?"

Ash tried to take a step back, but he ended up running into a very small person, nearly falling over them. Pikachu had to hold onto his jacket with his hands just to keep from swinging right off and being lost to the party.

"Hey! You think just because I'm a troll you can walk all over me?" the little person snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at Ash.

"Not at all! I was just asking if anyone had any information about portals!"

"Portals, you ask?"

It was a new voice, echoic, with a slight lisp. Ash turned around to see the huge face of a Gastly looming before him, his mouth twisted into a sinister smile. "I'll answer your question if you answer mine: is that a real Pikachu or just a costume?"

Ash grabbed Pikachu from off his shoulder and held him close to his chest. "What's it to you?"

The Gastly lolled his head around in his cloud of purple mist, seeming to shrug. "Oh, no reason. But if you don't answer, then I'm not going to tell you about portals."

Ash and Pikachu exchanged a look. "Fine, he's real. Now tell me what you know about portals."

The Gastly's eyes widened, as did those of the Noctowl and the troll. "A Pikachu?" they all asked in unison, hungry smiles on their faces.

"Can you use an itty bitty Thundershock Attack?" the Noctowl asked with oozing sweetness, tickling Pikachu's black cheek with its robe.

"I don't even mind if you hit me," the Gastly added, looming closer.

"No, aim it this-a-way!" the troll countered.

Pikachu looked at the three questioningly, cheeks sparking as he prepared the Attack. The three were practically drooling at the sight of the electricity.

"No, Pikachu, don't!"

Instantly, Pikachu's cheeks winked out, causing everyone to look at Ash angrily.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" the troll asked.

The Gastly looked menacingly at Ash. "If you don't let that Pikachu use an Electric Attack, I'm not gonna tell you what I know about portals."

"I already fell for that once! You're not getting anything from Pikachu!"

"It's a fair trade, kid!"

"No!"

Ash shoved Pikachu as best he could into his coat and then ran past the three of them as fast as he could, pushing and shoving through the crowd of strange Pokémon and people. There were so many people everywhere that it was hard to move, but that also meant that it didn't take long for Ash to think that he had lost them to the masses.

"Maybe you should hide in my backpack, buddy," Ash suggested as he continued to shroud Pikachu in his jacket.

Pikachu whined in response, shaking his head as much as he could in the confined space.

"I think it's for the best."

Ash unslung his backpack from one shoulder and rested it on his stomach before lifting Pikachu and placing him inside. He was just about to replace the top flap when something in the distance caught his eye.

Over the tops of the heads of the partygoers, Ash spotted a large stream of red hair and some bright blue hair. He stood on his tip-toes to see better, but all he could see was hair. When he crouched down to look through everyone's legs, he spotted a strange Meowth, dark like the ones he'd been seeing. Leading the three of them was an ordinary Umbreon.

It struck him as odd. Whoever these three were, they seemed almost familiar. Achingly familiar. It was bothering him like a word being right on the tip of your tongue that you can't figure out. He just couldn't place them.

But that was crazy, right? How could anyone look familiar in this unknown world?

"I'm not crazy, am I, Pikachu? Have we seen those guys before?"

Pikachu scratched his head and shrugged. "Pika."

"Maybe it's a sign," Ash decided. "They'll be able to help us. We should follow them."

"Cha!"

Pikachu nodded enthusiastically, all ready to climb out of the bag. Ash, however, stopped him in his tracks.

"Uh-uh. You're staying in here until we get to the bottom of this."

Pikachu frowned, grumbling to Ash before the flap was replaced and the lights went out.

_The plot thickens with new friends—or foes—joining the group. An Umbreon and a Litwick; can we trust them? Moreover, who did Ash spot? Will they be the ones to finally inform him about the portal that he now so desperately needs? Only one way to find out! Tune in next time!_

* * *


	6. Boo!

_Midnight is fast approaching in Halloweenia and Ash and the gang have too many things to do! Find the crown, find Togepi, find a portal and get back home! And Team Rocket…doesn't know any of this. Ugh, what a mess._

A tall figure teetered in the dark, only yards away from the castle. The only thing that lay between the two was a wide moat. Only this moat wasn't filled with water; it was filled with sand. Which would have been harmless enough, had it not been for the Sandile creeping around in it. Just beyond them, by the front door, were two Golett standing guard.

"This could not be less comfortable."

"Oh yeah?" came a muffled voice. "Try having to carry both of you!"

Brock's head poked out from the middle of a long trench coat, drinking in sweet oxygen. Misty was sitting on Brock's shoulders and Litty, comfy in his jack-o-lantern, was the head of the strange monster they were embodying.

"Hey, you wanted something that would work, right?" Litty said. "Well, this will work!"

Shaking his head, Brock buttoned himself back in, steeling himself to carry Misty and Litty the rest of the way. "Seriously, this seems like a plan that Team Rocket would cook up."

"Well, I don't know who they are, but they sound like stand up folks to me!"

Misty sighed. "Right."

"Look, I'm not sure how much longer I can hold you guys, so can we get a move on?"

Litty jumped up and down in his jack-o-lantern and shouted, "Giddy up!"

Brock took a few shaky steps forward before Misty yelled, "Stop! What about the Sandile?"

Brock's legs seized immediately, not eager to be bitten by any Pokémon today.

"Oh, right; silly me."

Then, purple waves began emanating from the eyes and mouth of Litty's jack-o-lantern, targeting all of the nearby Pokémon. Abruptly, all of the Sandile and the Golett began dizzily tripping around, running into each other, and falling down. Litty hooted with laughter.

"Oh boy, that never gets old! Anyway, now it's safe to go. Just don't step on one of them!"

"That doesn't seem very nice," Brock mumbled to Misty as be began walking carefully through the sand.

"Well, neither was stealing Togepi."

Misty wanted to grumble or have some kind of conviction come through in her voice, but it wavered as she did all she could to hold on to Brock's neck and shoulders as he wobbled through the sand. Eventually she found purchase in grasping at his hair.

"Watch it!"

"What, afraid your hair is going to look like Ash's?"

"No, I'm afraid I'm not going to _have_ any hair!"

"You're about to hit the door!"

"Ow!"

Litty called out his warning just a moment too late as Brock and Misty's noses found the large wooden door to the castle. They both pulled back, Misty and Litty nearly falling off of Brock in the process, and rubbed their noses, causing the torso of their trench coat to wiggle inhumanly.

"Knock on the door!"

Misty was the arms to their giant and she reached up to knock, only hitting the air a couple of times without her eyes to guide her. Finally, she found the door and gave it three hearty raps, to which it swung open almost immediately.

Or should we say to _witch_?

Opening the door was a Jynx with a green face and a long, hooked nose. She looked up at the towering monster and then past them at all of the confused Pokémon. She narrowed her eyes at Litty's jack-o-lantern.

"Litty?"

Litty poked his head out of the jack-o-lantern. "Hiya, Linda!"

"Did you really have to do that?"

Litty shrugged. "It's Halloween!"

"And what's with the costume?"

"Uhh…it's Halloween?"

The Jynx, however, was not having it. "Right. Let's have a look and see what's under that costume."

"Now!" Litty shouted.

Suddenly, Misty's head popped out of the top of the trench coat and she held Litty far above her head. Then, all at once, she thrust the pumpkin down on the Jynx's head as Litty made a flying leap out of it.

The trench coat fell to the ground at Brock's feet and he looked at the Jynx who was now flat on the ground. Stars were spinning over her head and her eyes were reduced to swirls as she moaned.

"Did we really have to do that?" Brock asked.

"Uh, no," Litty answered honestly. "But what's Halloween without a few tricks? Anyway, now we have to go."

Without his jack-o-lantern to hop around in, Litty toddled forward on his stubby legs, navigating through the wide hallway.

It was slow going, and spooky. For a big, fancy castle, it sure was empty. Brock and Misty's footsteps echoed loudly, providing the only sound save for the flickering of flames lining and lighting the walls. That was, until a few minutes later when they heard a dull sweep, sweep, sweep behind them.

They turned around and spotted a broom, upright and swinging this way and that against the stone floor as it followed them.

"What's happening?" Misty asked, her voice wavering.

"That's just Broomba," Litty answered casually, "Linda's broom. Don't worry about it. It's just lonely, looking for companionship until Linda wakes up. So needy."

The hallway seemed to stretch on forever as Litty led them past door after door, without so much as stopping to check a single one.

"Litty, you do know where Blair and Lassie would take Togepi, right?" Brock asked for reassurance.

"Togepi's just a baby," Misty added anxiously.

"Do you happen to know why Blair took your Togepi?"

"She said she would give Togepi back after we brought the crown back," Brock offered.

Litty abruptly stopped in his tracks, looking uncharacteristically serious. "The crown's missing?"

"Yes," Misty answered. "Now do you have any idea where Togepi is?"

"Now hold on there, missy!" Litty eyed Misty and Brock carefully. "Did you take the crown?"

"What? No!" Brock exclaimed.

Litty held his gaze for a few moments, as if to test their conviction before he backed down. "Good. Because that crown isn't just a crown. It provides Halloweenia with its whole life-source."

"Life-source? What do you mean by that?" Brock asked.

"The King uses his roots to connect all of Halloweenia's forest-land. The plants and trees take in his life-source and send it into the air for the rest of us to breathe. It keeps all of the creatures in Halloweenia alive. Without it, we die. All of us."

Misty and Brock's eyes grew wide. "No wonder Mantar was so worried," Brock said.

"What's this got to do with my Togepi?" Misty asked earnestly.

"Well, Fairy Types have life-source too, just like the crown. The King could use your Fairy for a bit in place of the crown."

Suddenly, Misty looked very angry. "You mean to say that your King is draining Togepi's life-source?"

"Er…well, it's not quite that simp—"

"LEMME AT HIM!'

* * *

Ash was doing the best he could to follow the mysterious people and Pokémon he had spotted; unfortunately, he was more used to the role of the one being followed, so he was struggling. And subtlety wasn't exactly his strong suit. He was hopping through the crowd, craning his neck to keep an eye on the blue and red hair until he decided that crouching down and running through people's legs would work better. That way he could keep an eye on the Umbreon and the Meowth.

The partygoers, however, were not very fond of this decision.

As Ash pushed through the crowd, there were grumbles and complaints, even a few drinks spilled here and there. Then, of course, there was poor Pikachu, who was being jostled and, in some cases, just plain squished by all of the rough movements. Not to mention the fact that he had to stay silent, lest he draw attention to his hidden position in Ash's backpack.

Needless to say, Ash would be receiving an earful later.

Nevertheless, he quickly learned that truly the best way to get to know a town and its features is to try not to bump into them as you're bumbling around.

Not that he was very good at that…

"Whoops! Sorry! Excuse me—wait is that a Gengar?! Oh, sorry…Coming through! Aah!"

Eventually, Ash got to feeling more like a pinball hitting against bumpers as he just tried to keep from falling. Fortunately, the crowds drew thinner and thinner the further they traveled. Finally, he was able to stumble along without having to worry about being trampled to death. Pikachu, in particular, was appreciative of this.

Halloweenia, Ash was noticing, had a strange layout. In the center of everything was the tower of the king to which Brock and Misty were headed. Then, rippling outward from that was surprisingly barren space in terms of buildings; almost like that of a park with fountains and even monuments. Ash learned that the hard way when he almost landed face first into a fountain bubbling with orange liquid. This was where the party seemed to be centered. And Ash didn't know if they were always there, but today there were tons of tents and booths and vendors selling drinks, providing places to sit, or hosting Halloween-themed events.

Continuing outward, the party waned and the park-like atmosphere transformed, autumnal trees turning to buildings and grass turning to stone. Ash was grateful for this part of town; there were less people for him to bump into and make angry. As he sneakily pressed his body against the buildings, shifting along in the dark like something out of a spy movie, he guessed that they were both businesses and houses interspersed. At least, that's what they looked like. Most houses seemed to be pretty similar to Mantar's—wooden individual homes.

Before Ash could think any more about it, suddenly his mysterious companions slipped into one of those very houses, one made of dark wood with a flat roof that almost seemed sunken in at places. The house had only one door and just a few windows. Ash's first instinct was to knock on the door and introduce himself, but a thought gave him pause.

He was still potentially in danger. And more importantly, he had to protect Pikachu by laying low. So it wouldn't hurt to just peek into one of the windows and get a closer look at who these people were, right?

They had finally reached a point in town where nobody was around—the houses all seemed dark, even deserted; everyone must have been at the party—so there was no one to see as Ash crept to the side of the house and stood next to the window. He retrieved Pikachu—who did indeed chatter angrily into his ear about the many sharp elbows to the gut he'd received—from his backpack.

"Shh, Pikachu." He pointed to the house. "Let's look."

Ash held Pikachu as he crouched down so that just their eyes peeked over the windowsill to see inside the house. And both of their eyes nearly popped out of their heads!

Through the perfect view of the window, Ash saw the Umbreon's eyes glow red, casting a wash of light over the Meowth who transformed in color all at once. Suddenly, his body became a creamy white, although his feet, tail, and ears remained gray. But, more than that, Ash was able to see the faces of the humans who accompanied them.

"It's Team Rocket!" Ash whisper-shouted.

"Pipi kachu!"

The interior of this particular house was rather sparse in terms of furniture, as Mantar's had been, although it had far more in the way of clutter. But what drew Ash's eye immediately was an off-white sack on the floor by Jessie's feet. He gasped.

"I bet they're the ones who stole the crown!"

Pikachu nodded vigorously in agreement, black cheeks sparking as he growled at them through the window. The electricity brightened the dark night and Ash saw Jessie and James's heads begin to swivel towards the window. Ash immediately ducked, taking Pikachu down with him.

"Whew, that was close," he said. After wiping the sweat off his brow, he looked to Pikachu with full determination. "Now, how do we get that sack?"

Meanwhile _in_ the house…

"I don't know why we have to paint Meowth," James griped as he dipped a brush into some light gray paint. "That disguise you created was just fine."

"And much easier than dis." Meowth shivered as the cold paint touched his fur. "Dis is da pits."

"Hold still," Jessie said as she swiped her own brush right over Meowth's eyes, causing them to swirl unpleasantly.

Kitsume was wandering around the room, messing about with the many knickknacks that were lying about. She seemed to have a vast collection of random items in identical glass jars that were scattered about on various shelves and the floor. Not only that, but she had a great many books, including notebooks, scattered hither and thither, spines broken as they were cast about without much regard for organization.

As she rooted around, she said, "It takes a lot of effort to hold up a disguise like that; I wouldn't be able to keep it up forever. So while this may be a dab harder for you, it's much easier for me. And I prefer that."

"Aren't we supposed to be the ones that like to do things the easy way?" James whispered to Jessie. "This Pokémon is encroaching on our territory!"

As Jessie shrugged, not willing to dignify that comment with a verbal answer, Meowth gave Kitsume the side-eye. "I didn't even know an Umbreon could do that."

Kitsume seemed to smirk. "This world will be full of surprises for you." Then she walked over to Jessie and James. "Now how about those Pokémon?"

"That's the finishing touch!" James announced as he swept a dab of paint across Meowth's last whisker.

Meowth jumped onto a windowsill and looked at his reflection in the window. He struck multiple poses, checking himself out. "Hey, ya did a pretty good job, Jimmy!"

"You know," Jessie began thoughtfully, "if Meowth gets to dress up for Halloween, then we should too!"

With matching grins, Jessie and James stood nose to nose for a second before jumping back and pulling fabric as if from nowhere. A moment later, Jessie was dressed as a devil, entirely in red, and James—with a long, black wig—was a very feminine witch.

"Oh, James, you look fantastic!"

"Not so much as you; why, Jessie, you look devilishly beautiful!"

As Jessie and James stood complimenting each other and Meowth continued modeling for himself, a vein pulsed on Kitsume's forehead. Her fur was standing on end and she was grinding her teeth down to nubs. Why had she decided to go for such imbeciles?

"Show me your Pokémon!" she finally shouted.

"What's that?" James asked.

"You agreed you would show me your Pokémon if I helped you. Well, here I am helping you, and I don't see anything besides a lousy Meowth."

"Lousy!" Meowth exclaimed, suddenly finished looking at his beautiful self. Suddenly, his claws were out, gleaming in the yellow light of the room. "Why I oughta!"

"Oh, just _see_ them?" Jessie rolled her eyes. "You expect us to believe that?"

"Well, no," Kitsume said plainly, shocking Team Rocket with her bluntness. "But I'm not going to steal them, if that's what you're worried about."

"Alright," Jessie grumbled suspiciously as she reached for her PokéBalls, "But I'm watching you."

Kitsume grinned. "Wouldn't expect anything less."

Her tail swished and her smile became toothier and toothier as Jessie and James each grabbed two PokéBalls from their 'Belts, releasing all four Pokémon at once.

"Riiiiiiiiii!"

A high pitch screech was heard and—before it was even fully formed—Victreebel jumped on James, and began snacking away.

"No! Not the hair! This is a brand new wig!"

Meanwhile, Jessie smacked her own forehead and the other Pokémon just sweat-dropped and waited for it to be over.

Suddenly, Kitsume pounced, running over to James and Victreebel, and smacking her tail against them. Trainer and Pokémon both went toppling over and James was finally free, gasping for breath.

"That one," Kitsume said, landing gracefully on the ground. "I want that one."

"Want it?" James screamed, his girlish shout matching his black dress. "You can't have my Victreebel!"

"You said you didn't want to take our Pokémon," Jessie stated, approaching Kitsume threateningly, raising a fist to strike.

"I don't want to take your Pokémon. Just have it use some Attacks, _capiche_?"

"Um," James scratched his head. "Like what?"

"Anything!"

"Okay…Victreebel, use…um, Stun Spore?"

Jessie and Meowth ran to the far wall, not eager to feel the effects of the paralyzing, yellow powder any time soon. They didn't know what in the world Kitsume was thinking!

To their surprise, suddenly Kitsume had a vacuum cleaner strapped to her back and used it to suck up every last particle of Stun Spore into one of those little glass jars that were strewn about the house.

Kitsume's eyes lit up as she unscrewed the jar, looking at it like it was the love of her life. Then she turned to James, exhilarated beyond belief. "Another one!"

"Oh, okay…Victreebel, use Razor Leaf?"

Victreebel began shooting leaves from the arm-like leaves on its sides.

"More, more, more!" Kitsume shouted as she sucked them up, hopping around the room to ensure that she didn't miss a single leaf.

"Sleep Powder?"

Meanwhile, Jessie and Meowth—who were still at a safe distance—were looking at each other with confusion. Kitsume seemed to be going absolutely crazy. And poor James was too lost to do anything about it.

"I'm sorry, what are you doing?" Jessie finally called over when her bemusement got the best of her.

"Pokémon Attacks are used for spells," Kitsume explained as she sucked up the glowing blue powder. "In Halloweenia, there's a very limited supply of Pokémon and Attacks available. So anytime a foreign Pokémon shows up, everyone wants a piece of the pie. I'm just taking my piece now!"

"Oh, like dat one twerp dat turned the main twerp into a Pikachu!"

"And that lousy Aipom," Jessie grumbled, still salty that they hadn't managed to get a spell to work themselves.

"Why does everyone want these spells?" James asked, patting a tired Victreebel on the top of its head—only for Victreebel to try to take a bite of his hand. "We've only met one person in our whole world who cares about Pokémon magic."

"Everyone uses magic here," Kitsume explained. "We need spells for nearly everything. People and Pokémon here can't breed, so the only way we can even get new blood around here is to use a spell to fuse two together or separate one into two. Things like that."

"You mean dere are nevah babies?" Meowth asked.

"Never," Kitsume affirmed. "We don't have a life cycle here."

"So if new Pokémon are so exciting for you," Jessie began, "why didn't you ask for anything from Meowth when you first saw him?"

Kitsume shrugged off her vacuum. "A Normal Type can't offer much, seeing as how you can't exactly bottle up Physical Attacks. They can't provide much more than a hair."

Eyebrows raised at her own words, Kitsume darted over to Meowth and plucked a hair before he even knew what was happening.

"Me- _yoooooow_!"

Kitsume dropped the hair into a bottle and then went back over to her vacuum. "Now let's see about your other Pokémon. Perhaps a Poison Gas Attack from that Weezing?"

Suddenly, the only door in the cabin slammed open. Unfortunately, that had been the far point in the room that Jessie and Meowth had been standing in front of, so they went flying into their Pokémon and James, so that everyone tumbled onto the floor.

The person who opened the door shouted "Boo!" dramatically.

Grunting, Jessie, James, and Meowth turned their heads and their jaws dropped when they saw who it was.

"It's the twerp!"

Just then, the clock tower struck.

Eleven o'clock.

_Oh, no! We all know what that sound means! Ash only just found Team Rocket—how is he supposed to save Halloweenia and find a portal before time runs out? And what is the King doing to poor Togepi? Will Misty let him survive long enough for us to find out? All this and more, next time in the world of Pokém—oh, I'm sorry—Halloweenia!_


	7. Double Double Toil and Trouble

_Well, folks, we were left with quite the cliffhanger last time, weren't we? Last we knew, Misty was nothing short of hopping mad and Ash had just discovered the nefarious Team Rocket in the home of a still-mysterious Umbreon named Kitsume. And poor Brock was left as the sane one. Hey, wait! If Brock is the sane one, then what am I?_

"I'm getting that crown back!"

"Hold on!"

Ash stopped in midair as Jessie and James suddenly shifted to standing, before they realized that they were standing square on top of their Pokémon. They then took a single step off and cleared their throats before sinister music began in the background as if from nowhere.

"Prepare yourself, twerp, for double, double, toil and trouble!" Jessie began.

"And make it double as fire burn and cauldron bubble!" James continued.

"To protect Halloweenia from devastation!"

"To find our way out of this mysterious nation!"

"To denounce the evils of ghosts and goblins!"

"To extend our reach up out of a coffin!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth, dat's right!"

"Wobbuffett!"

After pleasantly sitting through the motto, Ash steeled himself for Battle. "Then let's fight! Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Victreebel, use Vine Whip!"

"Arbok, Poison Sting Attack!"

"Oh, yeah? Two can play at that game! Cyndaquil, go!"

An all-out Battle began in Kitsume's house, but against all odds, Kitsume couldn't have been more thrilled. She strapped on her vacuum and sucked up every Attack as quickly as it was called, leaving the Battle at a complete standstill.

"Razor Leaf!"

"Ember!"

"Acid!"

"Agility!"

Sweat began dripping down Ash's brow as not a single Attack made contact. He was hoping that Pikachu's speed would get him to land an Attack before it was sucked up, but somehow even a blast of electricity was able to be bottled up and contained for posterity.

He quickly was growing frustrated. "Try a Quick Attack!"

But, as Pikachu ran into the fray, even he began to feel the effects of the strong vacuum and had to scramble back to the sidelines just to avoid being sucked up.

Ash grunted. This was going nowhere. "Pikachu." Ash's expression hardened as Pikachu turned back to look at him. "Thunderbolt on that Umbreon!"

Kitsume, for her part, hardly looked disturbed. She simply smirked and before Pikachu's cheeks could let off so much as a crackle of electricity, she said, "I don't think so."

And the whole world changed.

"Whoa!" Team Rocket intoned, their voices wavering like they were struggling to keep their balance atop a surf board.

Suddenly, the cabin as a whole disappeared, and Ash, Pikachu, and Team Rocket found themselves standing in a swirling world of black, purple, red and pink, with no floor or ceiling to ground them. They were floating in space as all of the objects of the room swirled around them, like gravity had simply given up.

Kitsume, however, was the biggest surprise of all. Her body was now leaner and bipedal, her snout had lengthened and sharpened and she had grown a long mane of pointed red hair. Ash looked at her, completely taken aback.

"What's that?"

Ash couldn't help but—even in the confusion—pull out his Pokédex and aim it towards the…whatever it was that had just manifested before them.

"Zoroark, the illusion fox Pokémon and the evolved form of Zorua. Each has the ability to fool a large group of people simultaneously through the use of illusion."

"Oops, there goes my secret," Kitsume said, though her smile was anything but rueful.

In her new form, Kitsume quickly scurried about the strange space and gathered all of her now-floating objects into her arms. Then, with nothing more than a blink, Kitsume created a break in the illusion, a window where the one in the house had been. She made as if to take off out of it before, in a split second, darting across the room and grabbing Jessie's sack as well.

"Bring more Pokémon if you want the bag back! If you can find me! Haha!"

Not a moment later, she was out the window, leaving Ash and everyone else with nothing but a gust of wind and the echoes of Kitsume's cackling laughter.

But Ash wasn't about to stand for that. "Not so fast!" he shouted.

In a moment, Ash leapt out of the window, Pikachu and Cyndaquil on his heels as they chased Kitsume outside.

Team Rocket, wary of being left behind, ran to follow Ash, but just as they made it to the window, it winked out of existence altogether. Then, to their horror, they were trapped in the swirling illusion, now with no way out.

"Team Rocket's left behind again!"

* * *

 

"Okay, the king doesn't have the crown. The king has never not had the crown! Not since I've been alive. So I don't know how long he can be without it. And how long can a Fairy help him? And a baby? Not long, I guess…but then how long has the crown been missing? Oh my GOSH how much time do we have left? I can feel my life slipping away from me. This is the end, I know it! Goodbye, cruel world! So should I help these kids with my final minutes or…"

After Misty's outburst, Brock had managed to pull her back from running around a mysterious castle with the threat of attacking a reigning king still on her tongue. Since then, Misty had calmed somewhat, but Litty…

"But I was supposed to just have _fun_ by following these kids, and now my _life_ is in danger? UGH!"

…had gone around the bend.

Litty, while monologuing, was pacing in a very small circle, around which Broomba was sweeping. Not that Litty left much of a mess, but it seemed to…soothe Broomba? Brock and Misty didn't know—it didn't have a face!

It was even worse than having to identify Staryu's emotions.

"Litty!" Misty cried out, her desperation finally coming to a head. "Help us find Togepi!"

Suddenly, Litty snapped out of it and turned to face Misty. "Right. You're right. The king will be fine. We should just help the Fairy."

Brock and Misty nodded, smiles finally gracing their faces in resounding relief.

"But _we_ will not be fine if we go challenge the King, just the three of us. This problem is bigger than either of you can imagine."

Misty's eyes widened in worry. "Then what should we do?"

Litty looked resolved. "We go to the library."

"Is that where Blair and Lassie are?" Brock asked.

"No. But backup is."

Litty seemed to know the castle surprisingly well, and they made it to the library in no time once Litty requested Brock carry him the rest of the way. Apparently, no matter how well you know a castle, it's all for naught if your legs are the size of a seeded grape.

The library was a large room, dimly lit with racks upon racks of books. And there were books heaped everywhere. Open on the floor, scattered to the wind, every which way. This perked Broomba up immediately, who then went after every book on the floor, despite not having hands with which to pick them up. Broomba just kinda of…scooted them around. But it seemed to be enjoying it!

…Once again, that would be if one could tell if Broomba enjoyed anything.

As for the rest of the figures in the room, there were some Zubat hanging from the open beams on the ceiling, a skeleton sleeping—at least, Brock and Misty _hoped_ it was sleeping—on a settee, and a Litten all curled up by a fireplace in what was clearly a reading nook.

And there were dozens of Chandelure floating about, providing most if not all of the light in the room.

"Uh, shouldn't that be a fire hazard?" Brock asked, pointing to some of the closer Chandelure, floating about autonomously.

"Nope," Litty chirped, hopping out of Brock's hands. "This is our residence! Besides, our natural fire doesn't tend to burn paper so much as it burns souls."

Brock and Misty took an enthusiastic step back away as Litty glanced about.

"Okay, fam!" he called, putting a hand to his little mouth. "We've got a real problem on our hands!"

Suddenly, Brock and Misty found themselves surrounded by all the Chandelure in the room. They gulped nervously at their expressionless faces. Their eyes were just so wide…and…soulless.

"Let's go see the king!"

At those words, Misty, at least, finally got her fire back. "And save Togepi!"

 

* * *

The going was dark. And Kitsume was dark; her body fading entirely into the shrouds of the forest that she had led them into. A break in the trees led to the moonlight casting enough light to occasionally catch sight of her red hair, but aside from that, it was hope more than knowledge that fueled his footsteps.

Eventually, Cyndaquil got in front, setting its back ablaze to add a little extra light to the night. "Thanks, Cyndaquil," Ash huffed as they continued zigzagging through the trees.

Pikachu too ran in front of Ash, as Pokémon tended to have better vision in the dark than humans did. Hence why Kitsume seemed to so effortlessly weave between the trees without having to worry about tripping over a root or, let's face it, running straight into one of the trees, like Ash did.

Then, suddenly, there was a clearing in the woods. It was still dark with the cover of trees, and eerily silent, but it was a whole circle of open space. And Kitsume entered it, only to completely disappear from sight a moment later. Ash, Pikachu, and Cyndaquil ran into the center and looked around, but to no avail. All that was near was darkness.

"Kitsume?" Ash called out in frustration. "Come out here!"

"Pika!"

"Quil!"

Softly, they began to hear a whisper from the trees. It grew into a laugh before evolving into an all out cackling, sounding like it was coming from all directions—from the very trees themselves.

Then, Kitsume appeared from out of the woodwork, her head lowered and her eyes sinister. "So you really want to show me some moves, huh?"

"No, we want to get that bag back!" Ash declared.

The bag, however, was nowhere in sight. Kitsume must have stashed it somewhere in the woods.

Kitsume was undeterred. "I think you'll change your mind."

Suddenly, all around in the woods, red eyes began to glow, one by one until nearly twenty sets of eyes were staring at them. Slowly, they came closer until bodies came to form in the darkness. It was a whole pack of Zoroark.

Kitsume smiled, eyeing her family members. "I think you'll want to release all of your Pokémon to battle us."

Ash grit his teeth. "I guess we don't have a choice."

He reached for his 'Belt and grabbed his remaining four PokéBalls, enlarging them all at once. In a blinding burst of light, out came Totodile, Phanpy, Noctowl, and Bayleef, who promptly ran over to Ash to nuzzle him, pushing Pikachu out of the way as she did so.

"Hi, Bayleef," Ash said awkwardly. "Sorry, but we kind of have big problems right now."

Bayleef turned back to the pack of Zoroark, and immediately cowered, like all of the rest of the Pokémon were doing. The Zoroark wore mirrored menacing smiles, each like a perfect shadow of the one next to it and made not a single sound. Like they weren't even breathing.

Kitsume opened her arms, barring her chest to steal Ash's focus back. "Battle us for it."

Ash narrowed his eyes, turning his hat around and widening his stance. He could do this. He _would_ do this.

"Fine, I will! Cyndaquil! Use Flamethrower!"

Cyndaquil let the flame on its back grow as it created a ball of fire in its mouth. Kitsume was nearly salivating in anticipation, her vacuum at the ready.

"Cynda…quil!"

The Flamethrower lit up the dark woods, blinding everyone for a moment. Nevertheless, Kitsume managed to suck up the Attack, leaving it flickering in a little glass bottle like a harmless candle.

"Is that all you've got?"

"Not even close!" Ash shouted. "Noctowl, use Confusion on that side and Bayleef, use Razor Leaf on the others!"

Noctowl and Bayleef stood back to back, each taking on half of the circle. However, Kitsume ran around swiftly, her footsteps light and soundless as she stole both Attacks from out of the air.

Ash wasn't used to having to handle so many Pokémon in a Battle. Never had he even _seen_ a Battle with so many moving parts. But it was clear he'd have to figure it out sooner rather than later. The problem was that darn vacuum! If only he could destroy it somehow…

"Okay, Totodile, Water Gun! And Bayleef, use another Razor Leaf!"

Totodile immediately began spraying in the direction of half of the Zoroark and Bayleef took on the other half. But Kitsume, as predicted, ran around as fast as she could with that vacuum. Ash looked to Pikachu who was as ready and determined as he.

"Pikachu, you aim a Thunderbolt right at that vacuum. Then we'll be able to fight this Battle fair and square!"

"Pika!"

Pikachu charged his cheeks, readying to attack while Kitsume was distracted. It was hard to aim while Kitsume darted around, but as fast as she was, Pikachu knew he was faster. With a battle cry, Pikachu unleashed a Thunderbolt into the air and watched it jut out in jagged angles on its way to Kitsume's back. But, to everyone's horror, it only made it about half way across the clearing before fizzling out. Everyone gasped.

"What's wrong, Pikachu?" Ash asked worriedly.

Pikachu looked confused, if not a little scared. "Pika pi!"

"No!" Kitsume bemoaned. "It's already losing its Electric Typing. It won't be long now before it can't use its Attacks at all."

Ash and Pikachu looked to each other in terror. It was almost too late.

"It's okay, buddy," Ash said, trying to be encouraging as that worry settled on both their chests. "We'll just have to try something else.

Luckily, at just that moment, a spark of inspiration hit Ash. He turned back to Pikachu with fresh hope. They weren't out of the game yet!

"Pikachu, Quick Attack!"

Kitsume faltered as Pikachu came charging at her. "What? No! I can't do anything with that!"

Ash laughed hardily. "I know! Now, Bayleef, hold her back with Vine Whip!"

Kitsume was busy trying to dodge Pikachu, who was flashing in and out of visibility as he kept up his Quick Attack. She didn't even notice when Bayleef's Vine Whip came out of the darkness and grabbed at her legs. They continued pulling backwards and before she knew it, she was face down on the ground.

"Great! Now, Phanpy, use a Take Down Attack on that vacuum!"

Phanpy, eager to be used, cried out happily and began barreling towards Kitsume, or rather, her vacuum. She smashed right into it, but it held strong.

Still, Kitsume was scared. So she let out a scream, and that was enough for the world to morph around her.

The other Zoroark began shifting, moving around so quickly and so stealthily that Ash couldn't tell where one ended and one began anymore. But one thing was clear; they were fast approaching. "Phanpy, keep using Take Down. Everyone else, attack the other Zoroark!"

Suddenly, the clearing was flying with Pokémon, each trying to outrun and out-hit one another. But without any more Special Attacks lighting up the night, Ash couldn't see much more than the dim light of the coals burning on Cyndaquil's back. There were just too many Zoroark, and soon it looked like his Pokémon were lost in a cloud of them. All he could do was try his best to call out Attacks that could possibly help.

"Pikachu, confuse them with Agility! Noctowl, blow them back with Gust from above. No, don't hit the others! Keep at it Phanpy!"

Eventually, it was all he could do to keep from getting hit himself. Pokémon were flying all over the clearing, and he was standing right in the middle. He didn't even know if Bayleef had a hold on Kitsume anymore, or if Phanpy was having any luck with the vacuum. There were Pokémon cries and grunts and smashes of bodies impacting all around him, but he could hardly distinguish one from another. It was just a flurry of battle.

It knocked the wind out of him entirely when suddenly Pikachu's body went flying limply through the air, colliding with his gut. Ash gasped and wheezed, but recovered as quickly as he could to see after his friend. Pikachu looked up at him with sleepy eyes, giving a dull, "Chaa."

"I'm sorry, Pikachu. You're too weak to Battle right now."

"Pi ka," Pikachu said stubbornly, shaking his head.

"Leave it to everyone else. It'll be fine."

But it wasn't fine.

Ash's eyes were beginning to adjust better to the light, since there weren't any more fiery or electrical Attacks to light up the night and ruin his corneas. And what he saw was unsettling.

His Pokémon were wearing thin. Noctowl was flying above to avoid getting hit, but hardly landing any Attacks. And it just got worse from there. Phanpy was reliably still going at Kitsume's vacuum, but the Take Down Attacks were beginning to take their toll. Meanwhile, Kitsume wasn't sitting motionless. She was firing various Special Attacks that Ash couldn't recognize at Bayleef, who was standing there and taking them like a champion. But though she was still holding strong with her Vine Whip, she was looking battered and Ash didn't know how much longer she could take it.

Ash grit his teeth as he looked at the scene. Pikachu crawled onto his shoulder and the two of them looked around helplessly. Their friends couldn't hold on much longer. And it almost seemed like the Zoroark had doubled in numbers, far from slowing down.

In that moment, Ash realized that he had to admit defeat. He couldn't do this to his Pokémon any longer. He reached for Totodile's PokéBall, about to call him back when, suddenly, his savior arrived.

"Disable!"

All at once, a pink glow pierced the dark forest, shooting straight towards Kitsume, dodging all of Ash's Pokémon. Ash looked to the source of the pink light and saw, in fanciful illumination, an old friend.

"Mantar!" Ash cried in relief.

As the Attack made contact with Kitsume, freezing her to the ground, suddenly the other Zoroark dissolved into little particles before vanishing into thin air.

"They were just an illusion," Ash murmured.

"Finish the job, Ash," Mantar said bluntly, his spoons pointed out towards Kitsume, whose face was stuck in an irritated frown.

"Right!" Ash looked to his Pokémon, who were scooping themselves off of the ground, brushing off their battered states. With a moment to catch their breaths, they all looked much better. "Cyndaquil, use Flamethrower on the vacuum, then, Totodile, cool it off with a Water Gun. Then you should be able to break it with one good Tackle Attack, Phanpy!"

The night lit up further when Cyndaquil readied itself for another Flamethrower Attack as Bayleef reined in her veins, to avoid them getting scorched in the process. As the tongue of flame ignited the vacuum on Kitsume's back, Ash turned to Noctowl.

"Noctowl, scan the forest; find that sack!"

Noctowl gave off a soft coo and flew off into the trees, her night vision rendering her perfect for the job.

Then it was Totodile's turn. The Water Gun Attack hit the vacuum with a sizzle, letting off some steam into the air. It also hardened the vacuum, leaving it solid, but brittle.

"Do your thing, Phanpy!"

With one last heave of energy, Phanpy ran for the vacuum and smashed into it. Upon impact, the vacuum shattered into a million pieces before being lost to the darkness.

Mantar took that moment to release his hold on Kitsume, putting his spoons down. The second she had her body back to herself, she let out an ear-splitting screech that echoed through the night.

"What did you do?!" she screamed to Ash, quickly running up to his face.

Pikachu quickly began sparking his cheeks and growling deep in the back of his throat. He was not about to let another Pokémon attack Ash.

"Oh, pipe down, pipsqueak. We both know you can't do anything anymore."

She reared back in an attempt to lunge towards the both of them, but before Ash could so much as shield his eyes, Mantar had her frozen again, holding a spoon out towards her as he walked over to Ash.

"Perhaps we should leave her here for a while," he said.

Ash nodded, taking a deep breath. "Maybe."

At just that moment, Noctowl came flapping back into the clearing, hooting victoriously. Hanging from her talons was Team Rocket's sack, which she dropped right beside Ash. Ash quickly opened it up, and was relieved to see that the crown was indeed sitting in it, right on top of a pile of candy.

"Ooh, candy!" Ash exclaimed.

"Pi pikachu!" Pikachu concurred with eyes wide and glistening in excitement.

Mantar smacked himself on the forehead. "You've got to be kidding me."

Ash somehow tore himself away from looking at the candy and turned to Mantar. "How are you even here? Aren't you supposed to be guarding the gate?"

"I used Substitute and left a dummy there. So I'll be summoned if I'm needed. But I could see that you needed help here."

"See?"

Mantar pointed to his brain. " _See_."

"Oh." After understanding dawned, Ash went back to the bag and picked up the crown. It was even more beautiful than the projection that Mantar had created showed. Even in the nearly non-existent light of the forest, it gleamed, seemingly with its own inner light. It seemed that the jewels in it were not jewels at all, but rather just colored spires on the crown. They just appeared gem-like because of their incandescence.

It was so mesmerizing that Ash couldn't help but just stare at it for a few moments. It was only after Mantar cleared his throat that Ash pulled out of his reverie.

"I guess we should take care of this," Ash said, gesturing to the crown.

"Yes, we have to get it to the king right away," Mantar urgently reminded him. "It's already getting to be too late."

"How are we gonna get there?"

"Teleportation," Mantar stated. "Return your companions."

Ash returned his Pokémon one by one to their 'Balls, promising to reward them all later for their hard work. Perhaps with candy.

"What now?"

"Stand away from the Zoroark and prepare yourself."

Confused, Ash followed Mantar's instructions, circling around behind Kitsume. In a moment, Mantar released his hold on her and she continued her lunge, but only reached air. And by the time she turned around, Ash, Mantar, and Pikachu were gone.

Kitsume growled. "The good guys always win."

_Mantar to the rescue! More than that, Ash finally found the crown. Now he just needs to deliver it to the king so that they can get Togepi back and still find a portal so that they can all make it home…Oh, no. How are they supposed to do all that in only one more installment? Find out next time in the Lost in Halloweenia finale!_


	8. Happy Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! This is the last chapter, but I also have an alternate ending set up next. This chapter is more like what would happen in the anime, and the next is what I would actual write, haha.

_Ash, Brock, and Misty are in the midst of the race of their lives…oh, let's face it. You don't care what I have to say anymore. Let's just continue with the story. Sigh._

Litty was pointing the way as Brock and Misty were running through the ground floor of the castle like their lives depended on it. Which…they kind of did. Behind them floated a veritable army of Chandelure.

"So the King's throne room is on the ground floor of this enormous castle?" Brock puffed out as they ran.

"Yes. So that he can dig his roots into the ground and spread them throughout all of Halloweeni—Stop!"

Brock and Misty skidded to a stop, digging their heels into the stone floor. The Chandelure, unable to stop so quickly, flew over their heads. It became immediately evident why Litty had called out for them to stop running; right in front of them was their old friend Lassie.

Lassie was standing in front of a door that was somehow even taller than he was. Behind him, Brock and Misty could make out some gold plating, making it stand out from the dozens of other doors they'd passed.

"Get out of our way!" Litty demanded, despite the fact that he was literally a tenth of Lassie's size, having to look up about six feet just to see into his yellow eyes.

"Orders from King," Lassie boomed out in a bass monotone.

The sound of his voice was so loud it blew Misty and Brock's hair back and covered them with a drizzle of spittle. They shook it off after it finished echoing off of the stone walls. Ugh, no wonder Blair seemed to do the talking in their dastardly twosome.

Litty seemed unconcerned. "I was afraid you'd say that. Fam!"

Suddenly, Brock and Misty had to step back as the Chandelure surrounded Lassie in a cloud of mystical purple fire and wrought iron. Lassie swatted at them like they were an annoying swarm of flies, but they persisted. Each time he batted one away, there were five more to take its place. Eventually, Lassie became so discombobulated that the cloud tricked him into taking a couple of steps away from the door. Then a couple more steps. After a couple more, the door was free to Brock and Misty.

"Now!" Litty whisper-shouted, pointing to the gleaming gold doorknob.

Misty heaved open the door, using both hands to pull at it. It let out a powerful squeak and scratched against the stone floor. Brock and Misty ran in a few steps, their feet muffled by the pounded dirt of the floor. Misty was all ready to shout, demand or even beg for Togepi back. But something stopped her cold.

Litty had said that the king was a giant Trevenant. And, since neither Brock nor Misty knew what a Trevenant looked like, he had described him further to be a large tree with gnarled bark with strange shadowy breaks in the wood, a plethora of roots, and tufts of lush green leaves.

But that's not what they saw.

King Trevenant now looked like one of the many trees from the woods outside: autumnal leaves that were falling in plenty. His arms and head were almost bare and the ground was littered with what had once been parts of his body. Even his bark was beginning to peel like he was a dry ash tree.

Meanwhile, Togepi was chirping happily inside one of the breaks in King Trevenant's bark, happy as a clam. Blair was floating right beside them. She turned to Brock, Misty, and Litty gravely.

"So, now you see."

The scene was so tragic that Misty didn't have the heart to yell. Instead, she looked at Togepi, who had livened up upon seeing her, and called out, "Togepi! Are you okay?"

"Priiii!"

That affirmation was enough for Misty to give a sigh of relief. Her baby seemed fine.

"He would already be gone if it weren't for your Fairy," Blair stated.

Neither Brock nor Misty could say anything. What _was_ there to say?

Just then a ruckus was heard outside the room. Lassie had been left grumbling at the Chandelure, who were making little whispering noises as they spun around Lassie like a haunted mobile. But then a shout from him drowned out all the other sounds, until Brock and Misty heard a scream that was very much human.

"Ash?" they both asked.

Then Lassie began chanting, "Got crown! Got crown!" his voice resounding even heavier than his earth-shattering footsteps.

Blair's eyes widened and she floated towards the door. Then she, Brock, Misty, and Litty had to all but sprint out of the way when Lassie came barreling through the doorway. Brock and Misty gasped when they saw Ash carried in Lassie's hands, looking more than a little stunned by the situation.

Pikachu and Mantar ran in after them, causing Brock and Misty to yell out, "Mantar!" their surprise multiplying with every passing moment. Mantar waved them away, turning everyone's focus back to Ash and Lassie after Pikachu leapt into Misty's arms.

Lassie carried Ash straight over to King Trevenant, Blair floating behind them. Then he raised Ash over his head, clearly intending for Ash to place the crown on King Trevenant's top patch of leaves. Or, rather, what should have been his top patch of leaves.

Eager to be put back on the ground, Ash returned the crown to its home and everyone watched in awe as it began to glow.

"Wow," Misty intoned. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

The entire crown was glowing with its own inner light, which seemed to seep throughout King Trevenant's body. As if by magic, King Trevenant's leaves began to sprout anew, starting as little light-green buds, and growing quickly like spring was passing in seconds outside.

As all that was going on, Togepi continued to chirp, clearly enjoying the glittering glow that the crown was creating throughout its perch. Then Togepi decided on a whim just to hop straight out of Trevenant's trunk.

"Pipipi!" Pikachu shouted as he leapt out of Misty's hands, running to catch Togepi before it fell to the ground. With a final dive through the air, he landed on his back, with Togepi plopping square on Pikachu's stomach.

Pikachu let out a painful groan, but Togepi just bounced right off of Pikachu and trundled over to Misty. Misty scooped Togepi up with a coo and held it to her chest. The corners of her eyes were damp, but she held it back with a sniffle and a sigh. "Oh, Togepi, never leave me again!"

"Misty, look at the King!" Brock exclaimed.

Suddenly, a red eye appeared in the top break in King Trevenant's bark. It seemed to blink a few times before looking around the room.

"How are you feeling, Your Highness?" Blair asked nervously.

"Wonderful," King Trevenant said, his voice coming out in a scratchy baritone. He clearly wasn't one-hundred percent, but he was getting there. "Who found my crown?"

"I did, Your Highness!" Ash called out, waving from up high in Lassie's hands. "And, uh, can I come down now?"

Everyone face-faulted.

"Of course." King Trevenant waved a branch at Lassie, who set Ash carefully on the ground.

"Whew, thank you!" Ash dusted his hands on his pants before Pikachu leapt into his arms. They hugged for a second, celebrating their success, and then Pikachu climbed onto Ash's shoulder, where he belonged.

"Ah, you three are humans," King Trevenant observed, taking a good look at Ash, Misty, and Brock for the first time. "How unusual."

"Y-You're not going to throw us in jail, are you?" Misty asked fearfully.

"Oh, of course not!" King Trevenant answered with a laugh. "You are the ones who saved all of Halloweenia; you should be properly thanked!"

"Well, that's a relief!" Ash exclaimed.

"You all don't even know the true value of this crown, do you?" the King asked.

"Actually, Your Highness," Brock began, "we do—"

"Never mind, I'll tell you the story."

"But, Your Highness," Misty interrupted weakly, "we actually really need—"

"Hush!" Blair scolded. "You may not interrupt the king!"

"Sorry," Misty said meekly.

"You will allow King Trevenant to tell you the story of our history."

"Of course," Brock agreed heartily.

"But King tell story all the time—" Lassie began before Blair hushed him as well.

"Well, once upon a time," King Trevenant began, either oblivious or uninterested in the chatter going on about him, "there were two Legendary Pokémon living in your world."

"Our world?" Ash, Misty, and Brock asked in shock, letting themselves be pulled into the story.

"Yes. Your world and our world used to be one. These two Pokémon were named Xerneas and Yveltal. It is said that when a Xerneas passes on it releases its life source into all of the living things around it and turns into a tree. When an Yveltal passes on it steals life source and then transforms into a cocoon. Well, on a Halloween day, many, many years ago, an Yveltal passed on while in range to a Xerneas, both in the land that would become Halloweenia. All at once, every Pokémon and person's life source was stolen, including that of the Xerneas. But that meant that everyone and everything was simultaneously bestowed with Xerneas's life-source. This made them both living and dead."

"Living and dead?!" Ash exclaimed.

"Exactly. And not only the people and Pokémon, but also all of the plants. The only thing keeping them alive was Xerneas. But Xerneas was now a tree, and had shed its horns. The horns hold the capacity of everlasting life." King Trevenant pointed to his crown. "This crown is made from those horns."

"Wow," everyone said, looking to the still-glowing horns.

"And I am that Xerneas."

"You're the Xerneas?" Brock asked in astonishment. "But you're a Trevenant!"

"A Trevenant is a tree embedded with a spirit. As a Xerneas, I didn't simply pass on—my spirit was taken by the Yveltal. But my spirit didn't make it to the Yveltal's cocoon; it went back into my tree. And now I'm both a Trevenant and a Xerneas."

"Wow, like magic!" Misty said.

King Trevenant laughed. "Well, it is Halloweenia. Eventually our worlds had to separate, because all living beings in this world can only survive through my roots' connection with the trees of our forests. Since that makes us all immortal, and we no longer follow the laws of nature, our world had to be separated from yours, only united through the use of portals."

Ash, Misty, and Brock all suddenly gasped. "Portals!"

"Right! That's what we needed to ask him about!" Misty said. The story had distracted them. "How close is it to midnight?"

Brock looked at his watch, his face ghastly when he looked up. "Five minutes."

"Your Highness," Ash began in a rush, "we need to find a portal to get back to our world right away." He held Pikachu up to King Trevenant to show his black cheeks and stripes. "Before Pikachu turns into a Dark Type forever. And before midnight!"

"Well, you're looking right at one."

"Really? Where?" Ash began darting his eyes all around, looking for anything could be a portal. But the room was empty, save for all of the Pokémon.

"Right here."

King Trevenant pointed to his crown. Everyone cocked their heads in confusion.

"But when we touched the portal to get here, we got sucked into the gate right away," Brock stated. "Ash already touched the crown and he's still here."

"Well, you need a spell, right, Your Highness?" Mantar asked.

"Not exactly. Usually a spell needs to be incanted with any object from the opposite world. But on Halloween, Yveltal's cocoon or my crown can be used without the use of a spell. You all must have come across Yveltal's cocoon in your world."

"But that doesn't explain why the crown didn't transport Ash before!" Misty cried out.

"Because it's only effective when in contact with me. We're a complete package. So. Would you like to go home?"

" _Yes_ ," Ash, Brock, and Misty breathed in relief.

"Then come on."

Lassie leaned down to pick them up in his hands. They all climbed on, able to stand on his hands like they were a small platform. Then, more like an elevator, as Lassie carefully raised them up. When they got to the top of their climb, they all looked at each other before reaching down to touch the magnificent crown. They were only inches away when Ash said, "Hmm, I feel like I'm forgetting something."

"What?" Misty asked. "We have everyone and all of our Pokémon. We need to go now!"

Ash shrugged it off. "You're right. Let's go."

"I'll meet you at the gate," Mantar called from his place on the floor.

"Thank you!" Ash, Misty, and Brock replied in unison.

They all knelt down at once to touch the glittering crown. Then, they felt that same unique sensation of being sucked up all at once, vanishing from this world to another.

* * *

 

Moments later, Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and Togepi found themselves in a passage just like the one they'd landed in before reaching Halloweenia. They checked out the rocks, trees, and other mysterious plant life that were distorted in their unearthly ways. It was both familiar and completely new at the same time.

Then Mantar appeared, having teleported from the castle. "I shall lead you back to an entrance to your world now."

"Isn't this the same place that we met, Mantar?" Brock asked.

Mantar shook his head. "This is the opposite passage—a mirror to the first one you found yourselves in. This is the one that leads back to Earth."

True to his word, Mantar dutifully lead them as he had before, and it only seemed like a couple of minutes had passed before he stopped in his tracks and looked at them.

"This is the spot."

"So soon?" Ash asked, feeling regretful that this was the last that they'd be seeing of their guide and friend.

"I'm afraid so." Mantar bowed low, shocking Ash and crew. "It has been an honor to have met humans such as yourselves."

"And it's been an honor to meet Pokémon such as yourselves," Brock said, referring to all of the Pokémon they'd met in Halloweenia. Well, almost all.

"Be well."

Everyone nodded. "We will."

Then, with nothing more than the will of his mind, Mantar sent them into oblivion.

* * *

 

With a gasp and a tumble, Ash 'n crew found themselves in a heap in the dusty attic of the mysterious old house back in the suburbs of Blackthorn City.

"We're home!" Ash cried in relief as everyone tried to detangle themselves.

"Careful not to touch that egg!" Brock warned.

Eventually, everyone managed to get themselves to standing. They turned and looked at the cocoon of Yveltal, which was still glowing the same blood red that it had when they first saw it what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"A whole Legendary Pokémon is in there," Ash murmured, leaning in closer to it—but not too close!

"Yeah," Misty breathed, taken in by the majesty of it. While, of course, holding Togepi so tightly to her chest that this time there was no way it could get away.

Far in the distance, they heard the bells of the local church gonging. It was midnight. Everyone looked to the ceiling and when they looked back down at the cocoon, they noticed that the glow had faded, hardly there unless you were really looking for it.

"I guess it's not a portal anymore," Ash figured.

"Not until next year, anyway," Brock agreed.

"Yeah, but let's still not touch it," Misty said, taking a step back.

"Pikaaa."

Suddenly, Ash's face lit up. "I still have my bag of candy!" he exclaimed.

"Ash, what did I tell you?" Misty said with an eye roll.

"Ah-ah. It's not Halloween anymore! So I can eat all of the candy that I want. Woohoo!"

"Pikachu!"

Ash and Pikachu both cheered as Ash tore open his candy bag and began ripping into the candy. Misty and Brock shook their head, hands raised as if to say, "What can you do?"

With only one arm now surrounding it, Togepi squirmed out of Misty's hold and leapt back to where the cocoon sat and hugged it with its stubby arms. Misty and Brock looked down and gasped, but were relieved to see that Togepi wasn't going anywhere. It was just hugging its friend.

And, who knew? Maybe they'd see their other friends again some other time.

_And just like that, the gang's adventure in Halloweenia is over. They saw new sights and frights to last them a lifetime but, more than that, they get to leave with the satisfaction that they saved a whole world that was once a part of their own. But wait…we really are forgetting something, aren't we?_

"Help us!"

"We can't get out!"

"This has gotta be some kind of Pokémon abuse!"

Team Rocket were feeling around the illusion that had been Kitsume's house, trying desperately to find where that window she had created was. Or the door. Or any of the other windows. Anything to get them out of there!

In the distance, they heard the sound of a clock tower chime twelve times. They shuddered as the low ring reverberated through their very bones.

_Well, maybe next year, eh, Team Rocket?_


	9. Alternate Ending

_After our adventures in Halloweenia, our heroes find themselves once again on the path to the Silver Conference…wait…wait a second! We're back in Halloweenia! What's going on?_

"Hmm, I feel like I'm forgetting something."

Ash, Misty, and Brock were once again standing solidly on Lassie's outstretched hands, reaching towards their glowing portal back to Earth.

"What?" Misty asked. "We have everyone and all of our Pokémon. We need to go now!"

Suddenly, Pikachu's ears perked up, his eyes widening wildly. "Pipi kachu!"

"Aaaah!" Ash began shouting, Pikachu's realization hitting him as well. "Aaa _aaah_! What about Team Rocket?!"

"Team Rocket?" Brock and Misty asked.

"They're here! They're the ones who took the crown!"

"Where are they?" Mantar asked, getting the group's attention.

"Um, in a house turned into an illusion?"

Mantar frowned. "Great, that helps."

In a moment, Mantar vanished away, teleporting out of the throne room.

"You had best be leaving now," King Trevenant suggested. "Mantar will be back with your friends shortly, I'm sure."

Misty scoffed. "They're not friends."

"Yeah. Actually, they're the ones who stole the crown in the first place," Ash explained. Then his brow grew heavy with concern. "Um, are you going to throw them in jail?"

To everyone's surprise, King Trevenant laughed, rustling the newly grown leaves all over his body. "No. I think it would be more of a punishment for us if they stayed in this world than it would be a punishment for them. So it's the number one priority of our national security to set them and yourselves back to Earth. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Your Highness," everyone said in unison.

"Okay, then you know what to do."

Everyone reached a hand for the glowing crown. And then they were whisked away to another world.

* * *

 

Moments later, Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and Togepi found themselves in a passage just like the one they'd landed in before reaching Halloweenia. They checked out the rocks, trees, and other mysterious plant life that were distorted in their unearthly ways. It was both familiar and completely new at the same time.

"Um, should we just stay here?" Ash asked, suddenly remembering how his voice echoed in the endless cavern.

"I think that's the best idea," Brock said. "I wouldn't want to get lost in here again, especially when we know that Mantar is coming back."

Ash and Brock took the opportunity to get a closer look at what they now knew to be the gate between Halloweenia and their world. They noticed things that they now knew to be references to Halloweenia. There was a sarcophagus of a Cofagrigus—a metal statue, of course; not live—little black rubber Rattata in a bunch of crevices, and…oops, a black Joltik with red spots, hanging from a tree.

Best not tell Misty about that one.

Speaking of Misty, she was busy cooing at Togepi, who was all but dancing in her arms. Misty was making up for the lost time that evening and, if she was being honest, she was double checking to see that Togepi was, indeed, still in one piece.

Before long, everyone sensed a disruption rousing in the air. They roved around until they spotted Mantar appearing out of the darkness with Team Rocket in tow. Team Rocket too were discombobulated, spinning around—clearly they hadn't been told where they were going—before they laid eyes on the twerps.

"Hahahaha! We've got you now!" Jessie cried out, drawing everyone's attention to Pikachu.

"Let's get 'im!"

All at once, Jessie, James, and Meowth lunged for Pikachu. Ash 'n crew could do nothing but scream and lean back as they waited for the inevitable. However, everyone's eyes widened when suddenly Team Rocket was taken over by a pink glow, and they fell to the ground, frozen in place.

Mantar shook his head. "You'd think that you all would start to see that move coming."

* * *

 

It turned out it took a lot more time to walk around a mysterious and inexplicable world between two worlds when you had to pull around three frozen villains via rope.

Someone had managed to pull three ropes out of nowhere and tie them around Jessie, James, and Meowth's middles. Ash, Misty, and Brock were left with the dubious task of pulling them around the portal while Mantar took the lead.

"You know? I'm not sure I actually like them better this way," Ash grunted as he heaved Jessie along their stony path.

"Pikachu."

Pikachu seemed almost smug in his disagreement, loving Team Rocket in their newest form. Of course, that was only because he didn't have a load to pull. In fact, he was only making Ash's heavier.

"We're here," Mantar said abruptly.

"Oh, thank goodness," Misty groaned, releasing Meowth from her grasp immediately.

Ash and Brock turned to her in dismay—they would have changed places with her in a heartbeat.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Ash said sadly, turning back to Mantar.

"That it is."

"We're going to miss you," he said. Misty and Brock nodded in agreement.

"As shall I."

"So…are you going to unfreeze these guys first?" Brock asked, gesturing to Team Rocket while sidestepping away. You know, just in case.

"If I must. But I shall make it quick. I don't much like goodbyes anyhow."

Then, without a further word, Mantar removed his will from Team Rocket and before they could so much as stretch their muscles, they, as well as Ash and the gang, were gone.

* * *

 

"Um, bye, Mantar…" Ash said the moment they arrived back in the old mysterious house on earth.

"Hello, twerps."

Ash, Misty, and Brock turned around to see Team Rocket staring at Pikachu, their faces shrouded in the shadow of the gloomy attic. They were all grinning maniacally, like this was their moment to shine as true villains.

"We've got you cornered now, twerp. Hand over the Pikachu."

"Never!" Ash shouted back.

"Hmm, then we'll just have to take it from you!"

"WAIT!" Meowth shouted, garnering everyone's attention.

" _What_?" Jessie growled, whipping around towards Meowth so quickly that her hair whipped James in the face. "What could possibly be more important than finally stealing Pikachu for the boss?"

"The candy dish is still here!"

Suddenly, everyone's expressions went blank as their eyes went to the ground. There, as promised, were the remains of the candy bowl that Team Rocket had been working on destroying only a few hours before.

"Oh," everyone said calmly.

Then it was every man for himself.

"Let go!"

"I saw it first!"

"There's another one over there!"

"No, that one's mine!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!"

Meanwhile, everyone seemed to forget about their own hauls of candy. So while everyone fought over the candy bowl like it was the carcass to a wake of vultures, Togepi trotted around, gobbling up all of the candy that it could manage to unwrap with its stubby little paws.

"Priiii!" it trilled upon taking a deliciously ooey-gooey bite. It waved its hands in the air and wiggled for all it was worth, living out the joy that was All Hallows Evening.

_Ah, that's much better isn't it? The crew got back again, but this time with some added members! And with the candy there to distract everyone, it seems that Ash and Pikachu won't be regretting it. Not yet, anyway. I guess we'll just have to wait and see next time, as the journey continues._

_Stay tuned for Pokémon Karaoke-mon!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, everyone. I finally got this story over onto this site. My beta, C'sMelody over on ffnet, was amazing for tackling this story with me. We wrote and published it in only 33 days, which was bananas at the time (but starting tomorrow I'm trying NaNoWriMo for the first time so...eep.) But even though she won't see if here, I just want to send her some extra thanks. I hope that you all enjoyed this story; I actually love this one. But most importantly, if you're American, vote on November 6th!
> 
> See you all next time I decide to publish a years' old story.


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